


Two Halves

by Ender_The_Wolf



Category: Original Work
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe, Blood and Gore, Drama, Furry, Graphic Violence, Guns, I'm bad at tags, Multi, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Romance, Series, Slow Burn, Swearing, Two Halves, bits of comedy, trigger warnings will be posted before the chapter, world building
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-06
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2019-11-07 01:55:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 72,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17951423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ender_The_Wolf/pseuds/Ender_The_Wolf
Summary: After being split into two people, Lex and Leon must work as the GCR's scapegoat and form their own group of agents, taking on the jobs that the GCR doesn't want. Discoveries will be made, relationships tested, and a plot to overthrow the island of Guantano discovered.





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song: Breath of Death by Simon Viklund

[The year is 2024]  
Leon (or at least that was the first name that came to his mind) swept his large bushy tail across the cold hard floor of the interrogation room that he was currently told to stay in. He wasn’t alone in the room, of course. Sitting next to him was an other racoon that looked exactly like him aside from a formation of a few black streaks on his neck fur. Leon didn’t know much about him, or much about anything at all. He had no memories of his life except that he had awoken next to whoever the other racoon was on the floor of some kind of lab that had filled with smoke. They were surrounded by broken glass that had evidently come from some kind of tube that could fit a person inside of it. After that a number of guards had rushed into the room, held them at gunpoint and then they were here.  
The room that held them was relatively small for somewhere to hold more than two people. It was roughly 20 ft wide and 30 ft long, a single dim light hung down from the ceiling and the walls were covered with stereotypical blueish grey tiles. It was dreadfully boring. Leon had tried to pass the time by talking to the other racoon (who he referred to as “other-me” due to their similarity in likeness), yet he got no response from him. As far as Leon gather, other-me was a bit of a stick in the mud. He wore a stoic expression that didn’t reveal any particular emotion. He had his hands folded on his legs which were crossed in a posh manner. He looked determined and steadfast, waiting for someone or something to take a move.  
It was at that moment that the door finally opened and in walked a middle aged chameleon, roughly in his late 20s. He was wearing a slick black blazer and a white buttoned up shirt underneath it. Despite how well put together he looked, his eyes betrayed him. He looked dreadfully tired, dark bags outlining his eyes. He sombered in and stood next to the metal table that Liam and his other-me were sat behind. Other-me finally moved, startling Leon at the sight of movement from the other man. He politely stretched out his hand towards the other man, holding himself straight and still maintaining his air of properness.  
“Good evening sir. I take it that your here to talk business and decide what to do with us, yes” other-me said, directing the question towards the man who had walked in  
“Yes, indeed I am. My name is Stephan. Do you both know your name?”  
“I don’t truly know my name, but I feel like it is something with an L. Personally I like Lexington. It sounds right to me.”  
“Thank you” Stephan then turned to face Leon. “And you, do you know your name?’  
Leon thought for a while. He had just kind of adopted the name Leon. Something about it just rolled off the tongue well. Mentally it felt like he belonged to the name. Yet somewhere in the back of his mind, Leon felt a tinge like the name didn’t truly belong to him, like a name from another life.  
“I think its Leon, I don’t know though.” Leon finally spoke up after a moment of silence. He looked back at Stephan, his eyes showing nothing aside from how tired he was.  
“Ok thank you for telling me, that sheds some light on the situation.” Stephan finally began to slink into his chair to face Leon and other-me (Lexington he said?).  
“Now, if I’m correct you are wondering why your here. That can be easily explained. You are currently in the Headquarters for the GCR in San Domingo, Guantano.”  
Leon froze internally. The GCR were the head honchos of the security force on Guantano. They were rarely ever seen and if they were around, something really bad must be happening in the area. A shiver ran through Leon’s spine. If they were here in this white interrogation room with an agent of the GCR, then they must have really fucked up badly. Leon thought long and hard about why they would have been there, but he couldn’t. His memory only covered the basics. A map of the world, the how to speak, basic functions, ect… The only memory that Leon had was waking up with Lex in that smoky room. Leon could remember nothing before that nor nothing after. Thankfully, Stephan spoke up, cutting Leon off of his reckless anxiety ridden train of thought.  
“Do you have any idea why you two are here?”  
And the anxiety returned full force. Leon panicked and was about to speak up and pronounce that he had nothing to do with anything, but thankfully Lex stepped in and cut Leon off before he could presumably make the situation worse.  
“If my memory serves correctly, this probably has something to do with something that happened in that lab you took us from, am I correct?”  
“Yes, I’m surprised you remembered that, do you remember anything else, anything at all about yourself or the world?”  
Lex thought for a moment before replying “I know some history of Guantano, the country’s standings with other countries, probably some more if I can jog my memory. Other than that, no, I know nothing. Nor do I know who I am or who he is.”  
With that Lex jammed a finger towards, successfully diverting Stephan’s attention towards him and catching Leon off guard.  
“Very interesting. and you, do you have any recollection about who you are.”  
“No, none sir. None whatsoever.” Leon was quick to answer. Stephan just nodded slowly and opened a folder that he had brought in with him.  
“Perhaps I can jog your memories” And with that he opened up the folder and placed it on the table in front of Lex and Leon. Both peered at it’s contents. Inside was a picture of a racoon that was identical to Leon and Lex (closer to Leon because he didn’t have the black fur around the neck). Other slips and pieces of paper detailed what was probably this person’s life and details. Lex went right ahead and picked up some documents that he probably saw as important or interesting while Leon flipped through the rest of the file to find anything that didn’t have a lot of small print. As they were doing this, Stephan began to speak up again.  
“Your original name was Leo. Leo was a 24 year old man that specialized in a mixture of missions for the GCR. He worked both stealth and loud missions and completed them with flying colors. Simply put he was one of the best on the force.”  
Leon (or Leo? He couldn’t tell at this point) kept flipping through the documents and found another picture of Leo, this time full bodied with tactical gear on and an assault rifle strapped to his back. Leon set the picture aside and resumed looking.  
“Stephan was a great agent but not without his faults. He could be narcissistic, brutal, and most of all reckless. But he was loyal to the GCR. Loyal to a fault. He took any opportunity to do any other work for us and had little life outside of working. That's why when we were looking for volunteers to test out a new teleportation method, something that would help troops be able to reach the front line faster if we encountered a war, Leo was the first to jump at the opportunity. We tried to talk him out of it but he was steadfast and wouldn’t take no for an answer. So when something went wrong with the procedure, we panicked, thinking we lost him. In a way I think we did.”  
Leon looked up at Stephan inquisitively. He felt like this was going to come back around to either him or Lex and whichever one of them it was would be locked up for doing something to a GCR agent. Leon just braced himself for the bad news that was bound to happen eventually.  
“However, when we did rush back into the lab after the incident, there was not one Leo, but two.”  
Leon went wide eyed and Lex even looked up from his documents to semi-stare at Stephan. There was a moment of silence between the people in the room until Stephan cleared his throat and continued on.  
“While you two were unconscious, we took the liberty and ran a few tests on you to just confirm some suspicions. We scanned your brains and compared it too out original brain scan of Leo. It appears that you have managed to split parts of his knowledge, yet retain most of the muscle memory that he had.”  
“I’m not sure I follow.” Leon hastily commented, hesitant to interrupt Stephan yet wanting answers to their predicament.  
“You two are separate people made out of the brain that Leon had. You both can do some of the same things as each other, like speaking and reading and probably some other mundane things, but you both have separate skills. As to what those are, it's too early to tell.”  
Leon sat in silence, mulling over what had just been told to him. He doesn’t think he is Leo. Is he supposed to? It was so confusing for him and Leon didn’t know how take any of the information that he had just been told. He looked over to Lex, who looked like he wasn’t surprised at all. He just looked like he was deep in thought, probably trying to find a way to dig more information out of Stephan.  
“So, where does that leave us know?” Leon hesitantly asked  
“To be honest with you, I don’t exactly know. As we are assuming that Leo will not be back due to the nature of this situation, that would leave you to inherit any of his belongings. After all, you are essentially his descendants of an unfortunate nature. This will also leave you in the possession of all of his GCR possessions because you are essentially him, just in two pieces. As far as to Leo’s previous job, I don’t believe we can rehire you for the GCR. However, we can’t exactly let you roam free.”  
Leon began to panic. This usually meant one of two things. One: they lock you up for the rest of your life or Two: they execute you and you are never seen from again. Either way, you can throw away any life plans you had prior to now. Leon looked to Lex, only to see if he was panicking just as much as Leon was. When Leon looked over to Lex, Lex wasn’t panicking like he had thought. In fact, he looked happy, like this was just a challenge for him.  
“You know Stephan, I don’t think that the GCR will do that.” Lex said, the corners of his lips quirking upwards into an insidious smile. “I think that Leo was to much of an asset for you guys to let what is essentially two versions of him go. In fact,” Lex’s smile turned sinister, like he was just playing with Stephan “I’m willing to bet that the GCR will go to great lengths to preserve whatever bits of Leo remain.”  
Stephan’s still retained his cool demeanor, yet behind his eyes Leon could tell that there was a deep level of annoyance hidden beneath his chill attitude.  
“Evidently, you are correct Lex. Although I am quite against the decision.” Stephan mumbled the last part under his breath so lightly it was like could have been mistaken for him just breathing. “That’s why I am here. The higher ups want me to to inform you that they have a proposition for the both of you. Evidently, Leo took all of the jobs that others didn’t want and now that he is gone very few people want to take those missions. The GCR is willing to offer you a subdivision of your own. You will have a small bit of funding from us and can employ whomever you choose as long as they can be trusted. However, for any faults that you cause, the GCR will deny any responsibility for your actions. Other than the pay and and the missions you will get, you will be on your own. You will also need to stay here for the first two months to retrain you and get you to remember your muscle memory.”  
Stephan finished his explanation and the room fell into silence. Leon didn’t know what to say, if there was anything to say.  
“I take it we don’t have much of a choice in the matter?” Lex broke the silence with his normal tone now toned down a bit, making it sound a hint somber.  
“You always have a choice,” Stephan said, standing up from the table and making his way to the door, “You just have to think about what the alternative choices may be.”  
And with that, Stephan opened the door and let it slam shut behind him.  
The duo sat there in silence, tension still relatively high in the room. It felt like any energy had seeped out of Leon because of the interview. Leon didn’t want to work for the GCR, much less be their scapegoat. But the tension right now was killing Leon and he had to do something about it. He shakingly gave Lex a playful punch to get his attention.  
“Hey at least being forced into having a good job isn’t the worst of things, right?”  
Lex glared at him, malice glinting in his eyes  
“Shut the fuck up”  
“Okay.”  
Leon promptly turned his head away as to not face Lex and slowly shifted his chair as far away from Lex as possible. The two just sat in silence, waiting for someone else to come in the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, my name is Ender The Wolf and I am the author of this story. I want that this will be a very long story with multiple parts and probably some spin offs so be sure to look out for those. As far as upload schedules goes the chapters will be up when I feel they are ready. I will be sure to upload fairly regularly, though. These end notes will be reserved for what I call Ender's corner. Here I will be sharing notes on characters, when I want to upload the next chapter, bits of world building, ect... My tumblr is https://endertheloyal.tumblr.com/ be sure to send me any questions about Two Halves that you have. I also stream on twitch https://www.twitch.tv/ender_the_wolf8 where you can also ask me questions on stream.


	2. Into the city

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> song: Sunflower by Swan Lee and Post Malone

Approximately 3 months had passed since that day in the interrogation room. It had been decided by the higher up in the GCR to let Leon and Lex out in the city and settle into Leo’s previous home of residence. After packing up whatever clothes, items, and toiletries they had had at the GCR’s main headquarters, the two climbed into the back of a slick black Tesla to be brought to their new home. Of course, that was the straightforward version of the events that transpired that morning. In reality, Leon had had to pester all of the GCR agents that had trained them and help them get back on their feet with very lengthy goodbyes. Lex always was brought along as a counterweight for Leon and his excitability. Leon would force Lex to say goodbye also, which he just left as a quick handshake before resuming to leaning on a nearby wall and waiting for Leon to bring him to the next person.  
Lex recounted the events of that morning in silence as Leon stared out the window at the passing countryside and pestered the drive about where they were going. Lex just sat straight up looking at the headrest in front of him, dreading whatever came next. Lex didn’t hate Leon per se, after all, they were a pretty good team. That is when Leon actually co-operated. Leon had a tendency to go in guns blazing and hope for the best outcome. This always frustrated Lex to no end, especially when he already had a thorough and detailed plan of attack. This is why Lex just let Leon do his thing for most of the mission, sneaking away through a different path and taking out enemies silently while they were distracted with Leon. That had that dynamic working well, but Lex just couldn’t stand Leon sometimes. His bubbly attitude, his optimism, how he always tried to get Lex to do something even though he was clearly doing something else at the moment.  
But this wasn’t what Lex feared. It was the fact that for the remained of his life he would have been with Leon in some way. Not that it was some kind of spell or technological mumbo jumbo that he had to stay within a certain distance of Leon or else he would disintegrate, no. Their job (or more trade-off for not being incarcerated for the rest of their lives) required that the two live together, at least for the time being. But even then, if they found a way out of their job, Leon was technically family. Very rowdy, boisterous family yes, but family nonetheless, and Leon certainly would not allow Lex to forget that. He would always be around Lex, stick by him for better or for worse. And Lex couldn’t take that type of loyalty.  
Lex turned his head to look out the window, seeing as the countryside slowly began to melt away to small towns along the shores of the island. Guantano certainly was a brilliant place, rich with wildlife and sights to behold. The beaches filled with sand so pure it was almost white and water so crystal clear you could see through it to view any small fish darting around. Shells dotted the beaches, some being the current residence of small crabs, others snails, or even a rare shell leach(pesky little things). Away from the shores, you had the jungles, filled with peaceful and deadly wildlife waiting to be discovered. There was so much to explore, from the caves hidden deep within the jungle, under the brush and fallen leaves, moss concealing the entrances, to various waterfalls that seemed to appear in random places while exploring.  
Lex swiped a bead of sweat off of his forehead. Even though the animals of Guantano had long since adapted to the heat of the island, on some occasions there was a blisteringly hot day where the water seemed to heat up and the ocean seemed to be the only reprieve from the heat. Lex figured that the beaches closer to the cities were crowded with people trying the beat the heat in some way. Lex thought back to the island and what he had learned about it. Guantano had very good standings with other countries and was their go-to country for various island fruits and minerals. However, with the line of recent presidents that seemed to forget that Guantano actually needed its neighbors, things were getting a bit tense on the political side. Some feared that Guantano would eventually isolate itself or ignore the other countries entirely. Others feared that war was on the horizon. Lex let out a mental chuckle at that. There was logically no way for a war to happen with so little use for one. Guantano may have been isolating itself a bit, but that was no reason for a war.  
The small beachside cities soon turned into the sight of street lights and traffic. They had taken an exit off and into one of the cities and were about to run into some traffic. Lex figured he didn’t want to entertain Leon during this time. Even though Leon was perfectly content with looking out the window for the ride up till now, Lex figured Leon would get very bored of the sight of cars in a line very soon. As such, Lex slowly closed his eyes, listening to the dull and dreary sounds of the pop music that was playing on the radio.

Lex was shook awake by two very excited hands. Lex peered one eye open to meet the bright and overly cheery gaze of Leon staring back at him, wide smile and all. Lex grunted back at Leon, a sign that he was getting up and to not pester him anymore. Clearly, Leon didn’t understand as he shook Lex once more.  
“Come on! Wake up, we’re at the house!”  
Lex just swatted at him to try and make him go away as he mentally prepared himself for the rest of the day with Leon. Lex slowly unbuckled himself from the car and opened the door. He was created to the bright sun shining into his eyes. He shielded his eyes as he stepped out of the car and walked to the trunk to grab his bags. He hauled them out of the back (Leon had already grabbed him and was waiting for him) and slowly made his way to the house. Leon stayed behind to thank the poor driver who had to put up with Leon when he was bored and probably just wanted to get out of there and leave them behind. They were in an area of the city that was slightly less populated compared to the rest of it. The houses were a bit bigger, two stories and it looked relatively large like a typical house you would find in the suburbs. The outside was unpainted, no bright colors or anything out of the ordinary on the lawn. Lex started, unimpressed at the building as Leon skipped over to him. Leon stood, taking in the sights of the house, his grin turned to a small gasp. It soon returned though as he tugged Lex towards the door, saying they should check the place out.  
The rest of the house wasn’t anything very interesting either. There was a kitchen, living room, study, 3 bedrooms, some spare rooms rankings from incredibly small to a bit smaller than the living room, a basement, and an attic. All things considered, it was a good house, well built, sturdy, spacious but incredibly barren. The two brought their bags upstairs and into the rooms, they had claimed as their own(Lex chose the end of the hall and Leon chose the other end). Leon began to plan what he wanted to do with the house and where everything should go while Lex laid in his new bed, silently drifting off to sleep. The next day he would need to go out and look for someone who could build weapons as Leon really wanted a new gun. Of course, a scientist isn’t just something Leon wanted. Lex figured that if he had someone else was similar to him in attitude, the less pain Leon’s bull shit would be. Of course, new tech and such would also be lovely, but Lex wasn’t expecting much. He fell asleep, planning the next day and how to control Leon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because this was such a short chapter I think I will be posting another one this Friday.


	3. Mad Science

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song: Dead Weight, Jack Stauber Slow Disco, St.Vincent

“Fuck you and your shitty excuse of a company!” Coral screamed at her boss. She stood up from the leather chair that sat across from the bosses mahogany wooden desk. The older woman, an otter in her late thirties, signed yet remained calm at the outburst that Coral had had.  
“Please, try to remain calm.”  
“Remain calm?! You are fucking firing me because of a lab accident!”  
The other woman removed her glasses to pinch the bridge of her nose. She didn’t want another outburst that could be more violent than a few swears thrown at her. Coral had a record of violent outbursts and it was a wonder how she wasn’t put in jail years ago. Coral was relatively new to the lab, only employed for about a year, and it pained her boss to have to let her go. But it was necessary. The woman was dangerous and many had complained about her breaking objects in a fit of rage. Her boss just had to tiptoe around the conversation and not rile her up anymore and maybe…  
“What is this actually about, ma'am? It isn’t just about the accident in the lab, is it.”  
“The accident in the lab injured three of your fellow co-workers and set us back weeks on our research. I’m sure you can see how much this hurts us and…”  
“Bullshit. Macayla blew up half the lab once, injuring 7 and destroying all prior research we had made on the project and she didn’t get much more than a slap on the wrist! Something else is the reason, I know it.”  
“Please have your locker cleaned out before noon or I will have no other choice but to have security escort you from the premise.”  
Coral nodded, spun on her heels, and gave a violent kick to the leather chair she had sat in no more than a minute before. The chair took some air and crashed onto the desk that her boss was currently behind. Coral would have gasped and looked concerned for her boss, but she was too upset with her situation as it was that she could only glare at the chair. Her boss peered over it to return the glare.  
“Make that out by 11”  
Coral opened the door, and slammed it shut, leaving her boss to stare blankly out into her office. She lingered on the sight of the overturned chair that now rested on the top of her desk before reaching down to drawer in her desk to pull out a bottle of whiskey. It may have only been 9 in the morning, but after that confrontation, no one would blame her if she got shit faced drunk in the office.  
\--------------------------------------------------------  
Coral wasn’t as upset as she felt she should have been. Don’t get her wrong, she was furious about losing her job, but for some reason, she wasn’t all too surprised by the whole ordeal. She did have a violent tendency and had to take some sedatives in the morning so that she wouldn’t get too mad. She had had this disorder since she was a kid. Hell, she even almost burned down her high school out of a love like rivalry with one of the queens of the school. Of course, they got over it and ended up a couple, living together and in a loving relationship. Well, there were problems, there were always problems in every relationship, but that was ok. At least, that's what she told herself.  
“Shit” Coral mumbled under her breath as she walked briskly down the sidewalk towards the middle-class section of the city. She really didn’t want to dwell on her relationship, or how she was going to find another job, or how she would confront her girlfriend about not having a job for now, or how much she hated herself, or…  
Coral shakily pulled out her earbuds and untangled them, jamming them into her phone and rapidly swiping to start her music. It always helped her get her mind off things and distract. She hit shuffle on her playlist and let her raging thoughts melt away under soft beat and light lyrics.  
\-------------------------------------------------------  
For the first time since he left the GCR’s headquarters, Leon felt stressed and that was something that really put a damper on his mood. He had been tasked by Lex to start looking for a scientist to recruit so they could start to get new gear. Lex was counting on him to do a good job and Leon couldn’t let him down. Hell, he had even printed out around 50 pamphlets and made a sign to put outside of the house advertising the need for a scientist. To be honest, Leon was pretty pleased with his work so far, but he was worried that it wasn’t good enough. Lex never seemed pleased with him and his work. Leon really did want to make him the least bit proud of him, they were supposed to be the same. Ish. Leon didn’t really know what their relationship to each other was. Were they equal to each other, was Lex better to him, he sure acted like it. In all honesty, he didn’t care if they were equal or not. All he wanted was to be at the very least respected by Lex. They only had each other now, they were supposed to be a team, maybe even a family. Leon sighed and grabbed the pamphlets and the sign. He walked over to the front door, unlocking the three locks individually. He should probably add some more locks, just in case someone tried to break in. Someone dangerous. But that was an afterthought that Leon pushed to the back of his mind as he twisted the doorknob and pushed the door open, the sunlight streaming into the dim lighthouse.  
\-------------------------------------------------------  
Coral walked past the seemingly endless lines of middle-class houses. She wished she could buy one of these houses. Move in with her girlfriend, make things better between them, provide for the both of them, maybe adopted some kids, raise them with her, grow old, sit on the porch with her and scold the neighborhood kids…  
All the things she couldn’t do now because she had lost her damn job because of her fucking temper. Coral kicked a loose piece of asphalt, watching it skid across the sidewalk. She looked up from the ground, taking in the houses and feeling a tinge of jealousy at everyone that owned one.  
“Fucking snots. Probably didn’t have to work hard to get them, just cruising on easy street.”  
Coral looked back down at the ground and continued to kick the little stone. Kick, skid, kick, skid, kick skid, kick, skid into the road out of reach. Coral sighed, feeling like a kid for finding enjoyment in something like kicking a stone on the read. She tugged on, taking a right-hand turn at a street and continuing down the road. She continued down the sidewalk, passing the houses colored brightly with oranges or blues, very tropical colors until she heard a squeak that brought her out of her autopilot. She looked around and saw the source of the noise. A raccoon had come out of one of the houses toting a wooden sign and some sheets of paper. He looked like he was trying to get her attention for something. Coral slipped off her earbuds just to make sure that he was actually directing his yelling towards her.  
“Hey! Hey you! Fox in the lab coat!”  
Yup, that definitely was directed at her. Coral was a fennec fox, her big ears and small size was a dead give away and she was wearing her lab coat that she had forgotten to take off. She turned to face the raccoon, ready to yell at him and kick him in the groin if he asked her out. After all, she had a loving girlfriend waiting for her back home.  
“Yes?” Coral questioned, hesitant and weary about her possible conversation with this stranger that she had never seen before. He seemed kind enough, had a mischievous and caring twinkle in his eyes and didn’t look like he could do much harm to anyone.  
“Are you a scientist?” the raccoon questioned her as if her lab coat wasn’t proof enough.  
“I guess so.”  
“Oh.” the raccoon paused a second, looking like he was thinking about something before looking back at crystal and asking “Are you employed?”  
Coral was slightly taken aback by this question. It seemed totally out of the blue and was very odd, to say the least.  
“Why do you want to know?” Crystal hesitantly asked him, squaring her feet to run just in case he came at her.  
“I’m looking for a scientist. One that can develop cool stuff for me.” He responded, smile widening just a bit. As much as he didn’t look like he could do anyone any harm, he was certainly weird and asked some very odd questions, especially to someone who just so happened to be passing by his house. “I was just about to put this in the ground and go around posting some pamphlets.”  
With that, he held up the wooden sign that he had tucked under his armpit. Sure enough, in black paint looking like someone from third grade had done it, were the words, “Need experienced scientists for a job. Inquire inside” and an arrow pointing left, presumably towards the house.  
Coral didn’t know how to respond to this weird event that was happening to her. It just seemed like some crazy coincidence or a trap. Coral didn’t know if she was desperate enough to take him up on the job offer and enter the house, even if she was currently without a job. The whole thing seemed fishy and unprofessional and the hairs on the back of Coral’s neck began to stand up.  
“No, no I’m not currently employed.” Coral finally answered the question the raccoon had asked.  
“Oh.” the raccoon said, tilting his head down towards the ground, seemingly in thought. He once again looked back at Coral, his grin widening into a full-on Cheshire cat smile. “Do you want a job?” He inquired.  
Coral really didn’t think she should be doing this or even be here. She was supposed to return home, tell her girlfriend she lost her job, update her resume, applies to any available place, has interviews, waits on the couch drowning her misery in a bottle of beer…  
“OK” Coral replied, taken aback at how quick she was to answer and just how desperate she was. She didn’t want to go back to her apartment and tell her girlfriend that she had lost her job. Maybe if this turned out well enough she wouldn’t have to. She could just continue on without the confrontation and the thought of disappointer her girlfriend. And if this was some kind of trick, Coral could always fight back and run. She had done so multiple times already and knew quite a bit of self-defense. Just in case, she pulled out her phone and made sure the Find My Device was operational for if she disappeared without a trace.  
“Great!” the raccoon beamed back at Coral. The two spent a minute just staring at each other. Coral would have assumed that he would invite her inside for the job, or give her some information, or do something! This was just getting very awkward and Coral didn’t exactly get what was going on. He just stood there, smiling. He even looked like he was waiting for Coral to do something. Coral was just about to start walking away to avoid the situation entirely, but he seemed to just snap back to reality.  
“Oh, right! Would you like to come inside? I can give you some information about the job.” He gestured towards the house and the door he was standing in. Coral felt even more unsure about how this was. It was looking more and more like some kind of amateur drug dealer in need of a chemist and just didn’t know what to do in terms of finding said person. If that was the case, he was kind of cute in how naive he was. Not cute as in a romantic way, but cute in the way that a little kid thinks he can do something, fails miserably, hurts himself, and then cries profusely. ‘Maybe I do have some other problems besides my anger to work on’ Crystal thought to herself as she began to make her way into the rose-colored house.  
\---------------------------------------------------------  
The first thing that Coral noticed was that about the house was it was surprisingly barren yet well maintained. The walls were a plain grey color indicates that they were yet to be painted and there was barely anything hung on them. There were a few cardboard boxes littered around the places, some having been opened and were now empty, waiting to be broken down and recycled or used for later, others not even open. None of the boxes had any type of identifying title on them, worrying Coral into suspecting that there was something illegal inside of them, adding to her original inexperienced drug dealer theory.  
“Sorry about the mess. We just moved in around a month ago and the things are just coming in now.”  
“We?” Coral asked. If there were more than one of them it may be harder to escape from the house if they did try to kidnap her and force her into labor. Coral stiffened up with all of the possible situations that could happen now with the possibility of more than one aggressor.  
“Oh, that's right. I never told you. I live here with my…..uh….brother. I think. It's complicated. But makes sense when you know all the details. We’re just a couple of totally normal family members. Yup, nothing else.” The raccoon looked very conflicted for calling someone family, especially someone like a brother. The whole thing just didn’t sit right with Coral. It felt like we were trying too hard to convince her that he was related to him.  
“I can’t believe I never introduced myself! My names Leon, my brother's name is Lex.”  
“Where is this fabled brother of yours?” Coral questioned. She really just wanted an idea of where to steer away from the house. Hell, he may not even be in the house, to begin with, and she had nothing to worry about.  
“If I would have to guess, he's up in his room doing work. He rarely comes down. Or interacts with me. Or anything really besides work and the occasional trip to the kitchen to eat.” Leon sighed, clearly upset with his “brother’s” actions. He looked down at the ground, shuffling his feet nervously. Coral would have felt bad for him were she not on high alert with being suspicious of Leon.  
“Anyways, let me show you around the house.” Leon regained his regular smile, but behind that Coral could see the disappointment in his eyes, betraying his smile. He turned on his heels to face away from Coral and started walking. Leon took Coral through several rooms including the kitchen, the living room, and some of the spare rooms. If Coral didn’t know any better she would have thought that he was trying to sell the house, not offer her a job. Leon was very inexperienced with the whole process of hiring someone. At least he was very nice and polite about everything. It was obvious that he was very nervous about the whole process and really wanted to convince Coral to stay and accept the job. It was the oddest interview or job offer “she didn’t even exactly know what to call it” that she had ever had the been in. And they had yet to actually reach the lab, the main reason she was considering taking the job.  
“And this is the door to the basement. We have the lab almost fully set up down there and most of the stuff is operational. At least, I think it is. Lex is the one that handles setting up the devices and stuff. To be honest, I wouldn’t be able to tell you anything about the stuff down there, let alone how to operate it.” Leon let out an awkward chuckle. He was obviously out of his element, not only with the lab but with the whole job hiring thing. Coral wondered how it would be if the fabled Lex were to have handled this instead of Leon. It would probably be a lot more professional. From what Coral had heard about Lex from Leon he seemed to be the brains of whatever they were doing here. Leon was more of the naive help, carrying out orders and running on errands for Lex. Leon opened up the wooden door that leads towards the basement and ushered Coral inside, not without turning the light on of course. A set of rickety-looking stairs lead down towards the basement and Coral began to descend them as Leon closed the door behind them. Coral was still on high alert despite Leon’s non-threatening attitude and his efforts to make her as comfortable as possible and him closing the door behind them set off all kinds of alarm bells. Still, Coral persisted on and came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs. She looked around the basement and couldn’t believe her eyes.  
The basement lab was large, at least compared to the small team lab sections that Coral was used to at her old job. There were a few tables arranged in a rectangle with one of its sides removed, providing easy access to all three tables simultaneously. Every table had a different kind of gadget on top of them. These ranged from the simple hot plates and burners to full on DNA sequencers and dynamometers, all in pristine conditions. Some tables also lined the walls, these equipped with bigger and more powerful machines that were best suited to be attached to the wall as to not clutter the rest of the lab. This definitely did not look like some setup that druggies would use to produce something like meth. No, this looked like a proper laboratory. Even some of the machines were state of the art. Coral could identify them because she had seen them in the news, talking about how they were the cutting edge of science. Someone who had this set up had to either be rich, insane, both or working for someone important.  
“I hope it's to your liking. I don’t know much about science myself but some of the stuff in here looks really important and impressive. Is this how labs normally look? I don’t know, I’ve never been in one.” Leon’s voiced cut Coral out of her admiring of the setup. He really did sound nervous now, his smile more an awkward one with Leon rubbing the back of his neck. Coral wondered if Leon was worried that she wouldn’t be impressed by their little-big laboratory and would walk out on them because of that.  
“Yes. It's wonderful. Amazing even! How did you two even manage to get most of this stuff?”  
“I’m afraid we can’t tell you that, nor should you even be here.”  
Coral nearly jumped out of her skin, whirling around to face whoever had just said that. It was for sure not Leon, their voices didn’t have the same pitch. Yet when she turned around, fists balled to face her attacker, she only saw Leon. Wait, no, there were TWO Leon's now! They were the exact same, aside from a small discoloration on of their necks; same size, same eye color; same everything! Coral stumbled backward, unprepared and floored by the sight in front of her. The intruder turned to face Leon, a stern and condescending look in his eyes.  
“What are you doing here and why did you bring someone here with you? This is supposed to be a secret operation, you can’t just allow whoever you want into the house! I thought I told you to find use a scientist, someone who could make gadgets for us.”  
“I did!” Leon whined back at the copy of himself. “That's why she's here! I was going to go out and set up posters across town advertising a job and she was walking down the street in a lab coat. She said she was a scientist and unemployed so I offered her a job. We’ve been touring around for the last half hour!”  
“You idiot! I meant for you to contact the GCR and ask if there were any scientists available, not pick one off the streets!” The figure snapped at Leon, cutting off the rest of his story. “ Now I’m going to do something about her which puts me behind for the rest of the work that I need to do.  
“But Lex I really think that she can…”  
“Shut up. You’ve made enough work for me as it is.” The man named began to advance towards Coral. She had heard enough and as much as she liked Leon she wasn’t about to be killed now. She still had shit to do in her life and she couldn’t leave Em alone. Not in this crazy fucked up world. She backed up to the wall with a table that had various simple lab equipment like beakers and test tubes and grabbed a graduated cylinder. She threw it at Lex, it narrowly missing his head. He turned his head to look at where the cylinder had landed after it hit the wall. “Nice throw.” He said as he turned back to face Coral. “Thanks.” She replied. Lex then noticed that while he was distracted by the cylinder, she had picked up two glass beakers and was now holding them. Lex moved to take out his gun and that was when Coral took her move. She threw one of the beakers, hitting Lex square in the head, the glass shattering around the area of impact. Lex recoiled but continued to attempt and pull out the gun he had on his belt. Coral started to run towards him, throwing the last beaker at the same time. She hit the hand that was reaching towards his gun. His hand stopped for a moment after being hit, which was just enough time for Coral to get close enough to him to leap up and drop kick him. They both fell to the ground, Coral making sure to not hit her head on the cold concrete floor below them. Lex was not as ready for the kick and as such proceeds to slam his head onto the floor. Coral jumped up, propelling herself to land on her feet. She raised her foot to stomp down on Lex, still on the floor trying to fight off blacking out. She brought her foot down, but she wasn’t quick enough. Lex rolled to the side and swiped at his belt, his fingers catching the hole where the trigger was. He pulled, the rest of his hand catching the pistol as he pulled it from his belt. He loosely aimed at Coral, but still disoriented he failed to have any of his shots connect. Coral swerved to the left in an effort to avoid the rouge bullets. She dashed back towards Lex, who was trying to get himself off the ground, and brought her leg up, kicked him square in the jaw. Lex fell back to the ground, his head once again hitting the concrete with a thwack.  
“Guys stop, you're going to ruin the lab and it was a pain to get everything out of those boxes! Leon cried from the stairs. oral grabbed a test tube and threw it at him, hitting her mark in the form of his stomach. Leon may not be attacking her, but to Coral, he was still working with Lex who, at the moment, was trying to kill her.  
“Ooof, what the hell Coral!”Leon shouted at her, clearly surprised that Coral had attacked him, even if it was a simple item thrown. He seemed like he really didn’t want the two to fight like they were ruining do something for him. Coral didn’t care though, she was only focused on serving now. Lex had regained his consciousness and was back on his feet. Coral dove under one of the middle tables as Lex unloaded his magazine, bullets hitting the various equipment set up on the tables. She watched his feet slowly move towards the table she was under. She kicked at his legs, hitting him in the knee cap. He toppled like a sack of rocks. Coral scrambled out from under the table and on top of him, punching him in the face repeatedly. Blood from his nose stained her hands as she continued her onslaught on him.  
A shot rang out, causing Coral to momentarily pause mid punch. She turned to see Leon standing near the stairs, an Steyr AUG in his hands. He must have slipped out and grabbed it from somewhere. How he even had access to a weapon like that was unknown to Coral.  
“I said ‘stop fighting.’ You two are ruining my job hiring thing!” His voice had become more serious and was pointing the rifle at Coral. She slowly raised her hands to the air and Leon quickly swung the rifle right, signaling her to get off of Lex. She got up and moved towards one of the walls.  
“Lex, stop being a fucking asshole” Leon spat out as Lex started to stand up and dust himself off.  
“It seems I was wrong about you ma'am. You do have what it takes for this job. My sincerest apologies.”  
“What makes you think I want this job now. You attacked me and have heavy weaponry. It seems like you two are dealing in some illegal shit now and I don’t think I want to be caught up in that.”  
“Oh no no no.” Leon shook his head, chuckling under his breath. “We work for the GCR. Well, we’re more like loosely affiliated with them. We have the freedom to do what we want as long as we carry out what the GCR want us to do.”  
“If you two work for the GCR why the hell would you be hiring a scientist?”  
“For new gear, of course!” Leon lowered his gun as if none of the previous events had happened. “They told us we could hire whoever we like as long as we run it by them beforehand.”  
“That's it. This is too fucking weird. I’m leaving.” Coral began walking towards the stairs, head swimming in thoughts and questions about the duo. Things didn’t add up. It was too unbelievable for them to have that much freedom and still work with the GCR. It had to be a trick, it just had to be!  
“We can pay you!” Leon cried out as she began ascending the stairs.  
“Shove the money up your ass,” Coral yelled back down.  
“We can pay you 700 a day!”  
Coral stopped dead in her tracks. 700 a day was incredible! With that kind of money, she could buy that new house, maybe even a better one. She could pay for couples counseling. She could see her dream of the family with her girlfriend playing out in her mind. It was the answer to all her problems. But everything here seemed so wrong, so fake, so unbelievable that Coral didn’t know if she could trust the two. She had to think it over and…  
Before she could stop herself, she was already walking back into the basement, meeting the eyes of Leon and Lex who both seemed surprised that she hasn't left yet. She came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs and crossed her arms, trying to look intimidating.  
“I want solid proof of that you two work with the GCR and an explanation about everything. Then maybe I’ll accept your offer.”  
Leon regained his grin, beaming like the sun, while Lex started walking towards the stairs. “Well then, we better settle that right now. Come with me and I’ll explain everything.” Coral followed him up the stairs, with Leon following close behind, skipping up the stairs in glee.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
Coral finally reached her apartment. She was dreadfully late and was usually back home from work by around 6 or so. It was currently 7:15. The process of getting everything sorted at Lex’s and Leon’s house took much longer than anticipated. Coral exhaled as the elevator opened up to her floor. Even after hearing everything, Coral still didn’t understand most of Leon and Lex’s backstory. It seemed like something straight out of a sci-fi novel. She didn’t know what to think about it, even when they had everything confirmed by calling into the GCR. They were essentially the GCR’s little bitch boys, doing what they were told to and bending over so the GCR would fuck them over and deny responsibility for them when they did something wrong. It did kind of rub Coral the wrong way. Nobody deserved a job like that, especially someone as kind as Leon. Leon tried his hardest at everything, always in an effort to impress or not disappoint. Coral had to admit, she did like Leon as a friend. He was kind and gentle, like a kid that didn’t know that the real world was a terrible place that didn’t hesitate to fuck you till you were raw. Lex, on the other hand, was an asshole. He kept a purely business-like the air around him and was so uptight Coral thought she could see the stick poking out of his ass. He was the exact opposite of Leon. Coral guessed that made sense, after all, they were two parts of someone else’s psyche. But boy did he get on Coral’s nerves. Coral sighed as she inserted her apartment key, unlocking the door and pushing her way inside. The day’s events still swam around in her mind, like it was all some dreamlike delusion that she would wake up from at any time. She would wake up and be back to her dead-end job, slaving away at pointless experiments that were ultimately going to be overlooked by the company in favor of making a bigger profit.  
Yet as Coral walked into the small kitchen that she shared with her girlfriend all the memories of the day sank in, reaffirming that they had in fact happened. She stopped halfway through opening her fridge. “Holy shit.” She mumbled as she pulled last night’s leftovers and a beer out of the fridge. Everything really had happened. She had been fired from her job. She had met the strange pair of raccoons. She had been hired by them and in turn the GCR. Her head swarmed as she sat down at the small circular kitchen table. It was then that she noticed the note that was left on the table.  
“Hi, babe! Sorry, had to fly out for work. I will probably be back in a few days. Guess this means we’ll just have to go to see the play another day. I’m sorry and I’ll make it up to you. Love you!”  
There was a little lipstick kiss mark at the end of the paper, a sign of dying love. Sure, she always said she would make it up to her, yet she never did. There was always the job, the one that came before everything else. The one that separated them, stealing the love of her life away from her. Coral crumpled up the note and tossed it in the trash. She finished eating and made her way to her room. She grabbed her laptop from her desk and curled up into bed, putting on some mindless show on Netflix to help lull her to sleep. If this were a new occurrence, Coral would have just cried herself to sleep with the thoughts of her suffering relationship. But Coral was older now (23 to be exact) and she was accustomed to this. It seemed like a daily occurrence to her now. So she just lay down and watched whatever show she had put on till she fell asleep, mind numb with thoughts of her love life.


	4. First Signs of Danger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs: Your Rain, Akira Yamaoka The Bomb, Pigeon John  
> TRIGGER WARNING!!!: blood and gore

It had been approximately three weeks since Coral started working with Lex and Leon. If she was being honest with herself, the job was fucking awesome. Lex was the one who laid down the rules but he was always locking himself up in his room (which he had transformed into a study) so there wasn’t anyone around to enforce the rules. Sure Leon was there, but god knows he wasn’t going to enforce jack shit. In fact, Leon openly wanted her to spend time away from work. The two would hang out playing video games or going on an adventure around the town. Leon said that it was good for them to orient themselves with the place as some missions would probably happen here, but Coral saw that he just wanted to have a good time. The poor guy was regulated to very menial tasks by Lex: clean up around the house, sort these folders into their respective organizer, go out and get more food, maybe once in a while go give the GCR a status report.  
Leon was more like an intern to Lex which just felt wrong as they were essentially brothers. Leon’s smile would still falter whenever Lex was being an ass to him and Coral hated that. She swears that whenever she saw Lex she could see a stick protruding from his ass. Regardless, it was a very cushy job, only work about half the time, full control of the laboratory (just don’t blow anything up or burn the house down), free access to the house (minus Lex’s room), and a very hefty sum of money to top it all off. Coral was more than pleased about her new job and actually kind of looked forward to going. Her girlfriend didn’t seem to notice that she was taking a slightly different route to work either so she could still act like she had her old job. Things were going good for her.  
She arrived at the house two minutes before she technically started work. In all honesty, though, she and Leon would just talk for about an hour before she went down to the lab. Leon was sitting at the couch fiddling with his AUG (she noticed that he really liked that gun). He kept reloading and taking the bullets out only to put them back in and slide the mag back into place. This was relatively normal for Leon as he liked to test how fast he could do it, but Coral noticed he wasn’t really going all that fast. He was rather lackadaisical about the whole ordeal, carefully sliding each bullet out and placing it on the coffee table in front of him. It felt like he was in his own little world at the moment, entranced by the monotony of reloading and loading his gun.  
“Morning Leon.” Coral finally decided to greet him. He turned around and his previously absent smile now plastered his face.  
“Mornin Coral! How are you today!”  
“I’m alright. Hey, I brought my bass over. I figured because my girlfriend never really likes me to play it in the house and because you were working on that music room I could just play it here. You know, something to do when I’m not working.”  
Leon’s bright smile grew two-fold to the point that Coral was worried if he would split the ends of his mouth from smiling too big. “No, that's fantastic! Maybe we can play together sometimes!”  
“Oh right, I forgot we found out that you could play guitar. Yes, that would be great, just having a bit of a jam-session together would be really relaxing.” They had found out that Leon could play acoustic guitar about a week ago. It was a rainy day, not uncommon for their tropical residence, and they were going through the boxes that they had yet to unpack. Coral had found a guitar in one of the boxes and asked Leon if he could play. He said he didn’t know because he didn’t have any memories from his past life as Leo but he would give it a shot. It took a while to get him holding the guitar correctly, but after a few minutes of mindlessly strumming the guitar, Leon started to actually play a soft haunting melody. He beamed and figured he must still have Leo’s muscle memories of playing the guitar. They also surmised that the guitar he was using was Leo’s guitar that he used to play. Where it came from or why it was in a box was still a mystery to them.  
“Ya, that be awesome!” Leon smiled, “So tell me about your day yesterday and don’t spare any details!”  
Coral walked over and plopped herself down on the couch next to Leon as she recounted her day after she left the house. She explained her botched attempt at cooking lasagna and how she decided to just make a boxed mac-n-cheese. She talked about how her girlfriend had told her about her day and the amazing world of finance drama that happened in the workplace. Who was cheating on who, who broke up with who, how blah blah blah was caught fucking some chick in the bathroom, etc etc etc… As much as she didn’t care for the inane drama that occurred at her girlfriend’s workplace, she did love to here her girlfriend go on a tirade about the dumbest of things and see her get upset when recounting a certain idiot from work. Just the small things, the small things that she missed. Her girlfriend often had to go away for a while so these moments were few and far between. She expressed her feelings towards her girlfriend leaving so often to Leon, who always stopped his usual joking around to actually comfort and support Coral. He was just a sweet guy like that and knew when to change his demeanor.  
Coral looked at her phone’s watch and saw that it was almost a quarter past 10. “Shit, I should probably get to work, I’m close to making a breakthrough on one of your gadgets.” Coral slowly sat up from the couch and turned to face Leon who was equal parts sad to see her go and excited to see what she had been working on.”I’ll talk to you at lunch, OK?”  
“Alright, have fun down there.” Leon waved her goodbye as she turned and started heading towards the basement door. She had quite a bit of work to do and some very important tests to run. Needless to say, she most certainly would have some fun in the basement.  
\--------------------------------------  
Coral stopped her afternoon work session a bit earlier than normal, around 6:15 as opposed to 6:30. She didn’t eat all too much for lunch that day and decided to raid Leon’s pantry for any snacks. As she opened the basement door, she could immediately hear something was happening upstairs. Muffled voices floated down the stairs and whispered in her ear even though she couldn’t tell what they were saying. She cautiously made her way towards the stairs that lead to the second floor, the voices becoming louder and louder with each step. It was now obvious that there was some kind of yelling fight going on in one of the rooms which could only mean one thing; Lex was yelling at Leon again. She followed the sounds to the outside of Lex’s room which was closed. She put her ear to the door to eavesdrop and find out what Lex was upset about this time.  
“I swear, you never do anything right. You should have known that there you can't go around telling every single goddamn person that you work for the GCR. That's how you get yourself and others killed. Why didn't you just tell them our address to while you were at it, just make it quicker for them? For fuck's sake man, use your head. Think for once in your life.” Coral didn’t know who’s side to take here. Lex was in the right and Leon shouldn’t have flaunted his status around, if that's what he did. But also Lex was being unnecessarily harsh to his pseudo-brother. Lex was always a hardass about the smallest of slip-ups. He seemed to uncharacteristically hate Leon for no discernable reason and Coral couldn't stand that. Not to mention Leon just stood there and took it all the time. It couldn’t be good for his psyche and Coral wondered how long it would take for Leon to explode at Lex. Regardless, she had heard enough and turned the knob for the door, slowly pushing it open. She opened the door to a surprised look from Leon and a peeved look from Lex.  
“Coral, what are you doing here,” Lex said, trying to mask the hiss of anger in his voice. It didn’t work and Coral knew that now he was mad at her too. Truth be told though, she didn’t care.  
“I was just looking for Leon. I need him to help me with one of my tests quickly. I’m afraid it's very important”  
Lex looked at Coral, then to Leon, then back to Coral before tilting his head down and letting out a defeated sigh.  
“Alright, take him. I was just about done with him anyway.”  
“Gladly.” Coral quickly grabbed Leon’s hand and lead him out of the room, closing the door behind them. After they had made their way downstairs she turned to Leon and said: “Hey, do you want to go on a walk to clear your mind a bit.”  
“Eh?” Leon looked confused at the request. “What about the important experiment that you needed me for?”  
“That was just a lie so I could get you out of Lex yelling at you. There is no important experiment.”  
“Oh, I see. But why going on a walk, what good will that do me?”  
“I don’t know, it helps me feel better after I’ve been in a fight, you know. Just kind of calm me down and stuff.”  
Leon seemed to ponder the offer as if it was some trick question. He finally looked back up at Coral and smiled. “Ya, I think I’d like to talk a walk right about now.”  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------  
The two had left the house at around 6:25. Both had decided to take a combat knife just in case they got jumped or something. They walked down the now desolate sidewalks of the city, mindlessly chatting about everything and anything. Leon vented about how much of an ass Lex could be at times and Coral discussed her worry about her romantic relationship. Neither noticed how dark it was getting or how the upscale houses gave way to more broken down and beaten up factories until they were a good mile into it. It was Leon that noticed it first and stopped walking.  
“Hey, I think we’re in gang territory or something. We should head back out.” It was then that Coral noticed the environment they were in. Rusted factories and broken down houses dotted the streets as street lights flickered in and out of existence. It was a shady section, to say the least, and Coral didn’t know how she didn’t notice the change in scenery till now. Coral suddenly noticed the chill in the air and the creak of iron coming from the factories. It unsettled her and she found herself desperately wanting out of there.  
“Yes, I agree. Come on, let's get out of here before....”  
“Hey boss, ain't this the guy King said was from the GCR.” Leon and Coral whirled around to see a group of men, most in their early twenties or so. They looked like the stereotypical gang members, bandanas, some with hoodies, jeans that were sagging a bit, rings on each finger, etc… There were seven of them in total; three birds, one jaguar, two bears, and one very large wolf.  
“I think they are. They seem to fit his descriptions.” The wolf snarled out. Coral asserted that he was their boss and leader as they all seemed to revolve around him. The gang started to advance towards Leon and Coral and slowly pushed them back into a dead-end alleyway. They were at a very clear disadvantage as they both only had one knife and were outnumbered.  
The wolf revealed a hellish smile as they back up the gang’s prey to the alley wall. “Now, we don’t really want the GCR in this neck of the woods. I think we should teach em a lesson. Don’t fuck with the terrors.” He pulled out a UZI and smacked Leon across the face with it. Leon toppled down to the dirty trash-ridden floor. Coral let out a small cry until someone grabbed her arm. Coral could feel a mix of terror and anger bubbling in her gut as Leon slowly regained consciousness. If she didn’t calm down, she would go berserk and most likely do something she regretted. She felt a knee connect with her back and went partially limp. Her hand was still being gripped by one of the gang members, the jaguar to be exact. “Hey, why don’t we keep this one as a prize. She's kind of cute and I’d love to get the chance to play with her.” Coral began to lose control of herself, anger boiling up. She knew that her freak out was now unavoidable. She just hoped that she didn’t end up hurting someone that she didn’t mean to. That was the last clear though that she had as her vision slowly turned a crimson red.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------  
It was Coral that made the first move. In one swift movement, she slid the combat knife from out of her pocket and slashed the heel of the jaguar that was holding her hostage. He let out an ear piercing scream and crumbled to the ground. All of the other gang members turned to face his direction, which gave Leon the perfect opportunity to grab his own knife and jam it into the back of gang member closest to him. As his body went limp, he snatched the pistol off of him and fired a few blind shots to get the attention away from Coral. It worked as the remaining gang members minus a bird and a bear turned to face Leon, guns raised. Leon quickly dove to the cover of a dumpster as bullets whizzed by him, nearly hitting his tail. Leon was worried about Coral as she had never been in a fight like this, but he also had to worry about his situation too. He was outgunned 1 to 4 and if he wasn’t smart he would certainly end up with a bullet in his head. He waited till it sounded like they were reloading to make his move.  
He slipped out from his cover, running and shooting loosely at the gang members. One of his shots hit one of the birds in his arm, causing him to drop his gun. Leon quickly ran out of ammo from his rushed shots and threw the gun at one of the bears. He started to close the gap between them as they finished loading the clip into the guns. Leon took out the knife he had tucked into his belt and flung it at the bear’s chest. It struck him just above his heart and close to his lungs. The bear stumbled backward a bit, dropping his gun in the process. Leon slid to dodge the bullets the wolf and the bird were spraying and grabbed the gun the bear had dropped. He kicked the leg of the bear who had the knife stuck in him, causing him to fall over. Leon used the distraction to scramble back up and take a shot at the wolf. He dodged out of the way and the bird took a faulty shot at Leon with his left arm, the arm that wasn’t shot. It missed and Leon took the opportunity to line up a proper shot at the birds head. He pulled the trigger and the bullet flew out, embedding itself in the feathery forehead of the bird. A small line of blood trickled out of his head as his legs gave way and he fell to the ground.  
It was then that Coral decided to make her appearance, carrying the last remaining alive bird by the collar of his shirt. She had a gun pushed up to his chin and was actively unloading bullets into him. Bits of brain and blood splattered out of his head like a fountain. She chucked the body aside, along with the gun. She held her combat knife in her hand, now covered in blood. Her face was splattered with the crimson liquid and her eyes now fit the color. Leon was taken aback by this. Her eyes were normally a light green, not blood red. Coral let out a screech and charged at the four remaining gang members. They took aim at her and Leon too raised his gun, firing his first to provide some kind of covering fire as Coral went in with her knife. Leon managed to hit the last bear in his stomach, making him lean up against the wall and slide down it, a blood path following his descent.  
The last bird tried to run away only for Coral to expertly throw her knife into his leg, causing him to scream and trip over himself. She caught up with him and grabbed him by his hair and dragged him over to a wall. She then proceeded to bash his head into a bloody pulp, only stopping when it was too hard to grip his hair as the blood had covered it. The wolf had taken the opportunity to aim a shot at Coral as she regained her breath. Leon saw this, but the dumpster was in the way of them. Leon risked it and began his run, transferring his legs to the side of the wall to run across it. As soon as he was close enough to him, he jumped off the wall, positioning his leg to spike the gun down towards the ground. It worked and he reached it just in time, his legs hitting the gun and pointing it towards the ground as the wolf pulled the trigger. Leon hit the ground and recovered in record time, sweeping the wolf’s legs out from under him and grabbing the gun that had fallen to the floor. He straddled onto the top of the wolf’s body and aimed the gun at his head. He pulled the trigger, officially ending the ambush. He sat there for a bit after tossing the gun to the side.  
After slowly getting up, he saw that Coral had returned to the jaguar who was wriggling on the ground, screaming for help. She had taken the knife out of the bird’s leg and was now holding it in her hand. She stood over the legs of the jaguar bending down to stare at him menacingly. She moved the knife towards his crotch and stabbed down as an ear piercing scream echoed in the alleyway. She pulled the knife out and moved it to his throat, driving it down and silencing him as the eerie silence of the alleyway returned. She left the knife embedded in his throat and stood up.  
Looking over to Leon, the red color of her eyes returning to her normal green. The two just looked at each other, neither knowing what to say after the bloodbath that had just occurred. Leon finally cleared his throat, but Coral was the first to speak.  
“I’m sorry Leon, this happens sometimes. I just lose control and get really violent. I’m so sorry, I usually take some sedatives to make it less likely to happen but I guess I was so worried about the situation that it just happened. I understand if you want to fire me and…”  
“I think I should start taking you on field missions.” Coral looked over to Leon, the hints of a kind smile edging into view on his bloodied face. Coral couldn’t help but start to laugh. It was so obscured. She wasn’t in trouble or getting fired even though she just violently dispatched multiple gang members in an alleyway. She laughed at the mere idea of it. Surprisingly, Leon started to laugh along with her. The two stood they, laughing like maniacs with blood on their hands and faces. Leon slowly approached her and tugged her hand.  
“C’mon, we should go back to the house and get cleaned up. We probably look like we were just out of a horror movie. Oh, and from now on when we go out we’re taking a gun along with us.”  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
The hitman M was well known throughout the criminal empire. She was a deadly crack shot and was the best sniper for hire. That is, she was the best sniper in the business. Lately, she had gotten rather sloppy and her superiors were not happy about it. They knew if she kept this up she would have to be dispatched as her superiors didn’t appreciate weak links in the system. They had called her in to give her a new, and possibly her last, assignment.  
M opened up the solid wood doors and walked into the elegant red room. At the end of the room in front of the windows was a black desk with golden details. Sitting behind the desk was Alfonso, one of the major leaders of the criminal underworld. Alfonso was feared for his rather unsavory tactics of dispatching “weaklings” as he called them. He always had to have the strongest of the strong. He was also, unfortunately, one of M’s employers. M always feared to work for the man, his assignments always seemed to be crueler than others. They weren’t the simple “snipe this person that stole money from us” or “kill this corrupt politician.” No, these jobs ranged from killing a whole squad of enemy gang members that had unknowingly moved into his territory to tying someone in chains and sinking them into the Atlantic Ocean. She hated that one, even though she had only done it once. She remembered when she actually didn’t have to do this kind of work, instead of working for the army until the declared that she was too much of a danger to keep around.  
Alfonso slipped a manila folder over too her and awaited her to take it. This was customary for Alfonso as he didn’t see a need in informing clients about their jobs when he could just hand them a file and have them figure it out on their own. M quickly breezed through the folder to find out who her hit was.  
“GCR, isn’t that a bit risky?” She questioned Alfonso in the most respectful of ways.  
“We got news that they were poking around in one of our districts. This is just to send a message to the rest of them not to interfere with our operations.”  
“I understand.” In reality that was total bull shit. Taking on the GCR was an idiotic idea, to say the least. But if she disagreed with Alfonso she would be ground into chum and feed to the sharks. M wasn’t keen on dying today so she kept her mouth shut and headed towards the door. Before she opened the door, Alfonso called out to her.  
“Don’t fuck this up M. This is your last chance. You fail this and there will be severe consequences.”  
“Yes sir, I understand.”  
“Good. Now please leave, I have some business to attend to.”  
M left the room quickly. Alfonso may not have had any actual work and could have just wanted her gone so he could have himself a good ol’ wank. M shuddered at the thought and continued towards the exit of the mansion. She needed to prepare for this hit and needed to actually complete it or else it would be her head on a plate. GCR or not, she couldn’t fail.


	5. Tainted Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song: The Mighty Fall, Fall Out Boy

The day started out like any normal day of her new job for Coral. She had awoken to find that her girlfriend had already left for her job a bit earlier than normal. This was normal for her as she seemed to love her job so much. Coral prepared a lackluster breakfast for herself before exiting the apartment and making her way to Leon and Lex’s house. The bright hot tropical sun beamed down on her making her wish she had put on some kind of fur protectant before leaving that morning. The fur didn’t help either, only adding to the heat. It had been a while since she went to get her fur cut and Coral put down a mental reminder for her to get one when she had the chance. She passed by a few earlier risers making their way down towards the beach, probably to reserve a nice spot with a blanket before the crowds became unbearable. 

She reached the house in about 13 minutes, a bit of light foot traffic making her usual 11-minute walk just a bit longer. Coral always liked to be punctual though, so she rushed into the house, making sure she was on time. Leon greeted her as usual, with a smile and a wave, and Coral was surprised to see Lex down there too. He was eating a piece of toast in the kitchen, his bushy tail swiping across the floor mindlessly as he read some article in the news. He didn’t even regard Coral as she went to the fridge and brought out their gallon of milk, pouring it into one of Leon’s many mugs. This particular mug was painted with the LGBTQ flag and black letters spelled out “I support my friends.” Coral smiled at this. Leon sure did have a sweetheart. Leon knew that she was gay herself after she let it slip during one of their conversations. He didn’t acknowledge it at first, but during Coral’s lunch break, he approached her to show off the new mug that he had bought. Apparently, he had slipped out of the house and went to the nearest Hot Stuff store to find something that stated that he supported her. He was originally going to get a shirt but decided to get a mug after he was unable to find one that fit his size and had a good design on it. She took the glass over and went to sit by Leon in his usual space on the couch. He was lounging about with his feet on the floor (usually they would be propped up on the coffee table but Lex was in the next room ever so it wasn’t the best of ideas.). He moved over slightly to make room for Coral to sit down and the two began their usual morning chat. Lex didn’t seem to care, finishing up his toast and making his way back upstairs with a small reminder for Coral to begin working soon. It was out of character for Lex not to have blown up at someone for not working. Coral didn’t mind though, finishing up her conversation with Leon and making her way down to the lab. She began working with a smile on her face. Today felt like it was going to be a good day.

\------------------------------------------------------------------

M hated this day already. First of all, she had to wake up really early in the morning to go out and survey the house that the hit was going to take place in. Then after surveying the house for about an hour, she had to go back out to Alfonso’s territory to pick up her sniper rifle from storage. She hated going to that storage room to pick up her guns but she couldn’t exactly leave them at home, her roommate would freak out if she brought a gun into the house. God, she wishes she had a different line of work. Don’t get her wrong, she loved the rush of shooting and the adrenaline of combat, but working as a hitman in the city put her in a very tight position. She couldn’t exactly quit the job without ending up with a bullet in her head. She just had to climb the ranks and her superiors good graces so they didn't try and hunt her down if she quit. It sucked and was super tedious but it was the only way to prevent the fighting from following her back home. She couldn’t bear to endanger her loved one because of her hasty decisions. For now, she would play the gangs plan until she was in a good enough position to retire safely. M snapped back to reality, realizing that it was almost time for lunch. She needed to hurry up and pick up her rifle and then grab a quick bite to eat probably at some fast food joint. After all, you can’t fight on an empty stomach, can you? Then she would wait for a moment when she had the two raccoons that she saw in the house together in the same room to strike. Until them, she would set up a small sniping post on top of the “for sale houses” across from the house. As much as this job suck and how she figured there would be massive repercussions, this was for her life and she couldn’t miss her shot. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------

About an hour after she began to continue working after lunch, Coral was surprised to see Lex walking down the stairs into the basement lab. She figured it was just for some kind of routine check to make sure she was working well. However, she noticed that he was holding a wooden box in his hands, like some kind of package. Even more surprising was that Leon came bounding down the stairs after him. Lex and Leon went over to the table that Coral was working on and Lex set the box down on top of it. 

“What is this?” She asked him while she picked up the box and began to open the latches holding the box closed.

“Well, after Leon and I talked about it at length, we decided that after your display of talent in the alleyway that you can also come along on missions that we are assigned. In order to do that you need a weapon.”

Coral opened the box and there is a deep red pillow were two shotguns, one significantly larger than the other. “As you told Leon that you were more fond of shotguns, we went out and found you some very compact shotguns that are easier to carry.” Lex picked up the larger of the two guns and turned it over in his hands, allowing Coral to see all sides of the gun. “This is a Winchester 1897 pump action shotgun with a 20” barrel length. Wooden stock for increased accuracy, quick pump action, holds six shots, easy reload. This will be a very great starting shotgun.” Lex placed the Winchester back into the box before picking up the smaller gun. “This is a smaller sawed-off shotgun for in case you don’t have the time to reload the Winchester. Compact, easy to reload, powerful, but only holds two shots.” He placed it back into box carefully and looked Coral in the eyes. “Use them wisely.” His final words chilled Coral’s spine and caused goosebumps to appear on her arms.  
Leon then stepped forwards, presenting a small version of a desert eagle (she had seen enough of Leon’s video games to be able to identify what it was). “I want you to have this too. Its a baby eagle, small and powerful. Carry this around with you just in case you get jumped by someone in the streets.” Coral took the gun and turned it over in the palm of her hand. It was very light, especially for a gun. Coral unloaded the magazine and inspected it before inserting it and putting the eagle back on the table behind her. 

“Wow, thanks! I don’t know what to say! Is this being taken off my pay or something?”

For once, Lex slightly chuckled. It was a low chuckle and could have been mistaken for breath by anyone not listening closely. “No no. Consider this as a gift. Although I recommend you leave the shotguns here. You can take the eagle with you, we even have an ankle holster upstairs for you upstairs. Now, I see you are working hard down here so we will not take up any more of your time. Please, continue working. Leon and I will be in the living room if you need us.” And with that Lex turned on his heels and walked towards the steps, motioning for Leon to follow him. Leon gave Coral one last smile before following Lex up the stairs. And Coral was left in the quiet basement, alone and quite frankly confused at what just happened. It was like a whirl of emotions was attacking her. She felt surprised, worried, excited, joyful, scared, all blending together in a confusing blend of emotions. She shook her head and decided that this was an opportunity to prove that she was a valuable member of the team. She just needed to wait for her chance.

\-------------------------------------------------------------

M had been waiting on the roof of the building across from the house for about five hours now. She had devised a plan to wait until The two strikingly similar raccoons sat down on the couch together. After that, she would have to act quickly and line up a headshot on one of them. Then after she took the shot, she would need to shoot the other quickly before he had the time to react. It was going to be a challenge, but not impossible. She wished she just needed to kill one of them, then she could have been done with the contract already and have gone out to shop or hunt or swim or do something more enjoyable than sitting on a roof for half the stinking day. M took a sip from the energy drink that she had bought when going to get some food. She wiped her mouth on her sleeve and looked back into her 7x scope. She then saw the two heading back into the room. She set the bottle down onto the floor of the roof and positioned herself so she could look through the scope better. The two raccoons stood around talking for a little bit before sitting down on the couch, one of them picking up a tv remote and turned on the tv. They continued talking, a little less than before. The two seemed to have let their guard down as they lounged on the couch. This was the moment M needed. She gripped the rifle and pushed the stock into her armpit, steadying herself and lining up a shot on the one with the remote’s head. With her other hand, she slipped her metal plague doctors mask down onto her face, the lenses of the mask whirring to life with a red flicker. She swallowed her breathing, she could not afford to miss this shot. She lightly touched the trigger beginning to pull it back to fire the rifle.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------

Lex walked into the living room with Leon following close behind him. The two migrated towards the couch, but Leon stopped Lex before he sat down on the couch.  
“Hey, thanks for doing this. I know you don’t exactly do this kind of thing and you would much rather stay up in your room working and stuff and would rather not even interact with us on a daily basis and you probably hate us and stuff but I just want to say…” 

Lex cut Leon off by putting a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, hey It’s fine. It was kind of fun going out to the GCR and looking for guns. I enjoyed it actually.”  
Leon seemed too intense for a little bit and lightly pushed Lex’s hand off of his shoulder. 

“Thanks, that makes me feel a bit better. I know how much you hate me being around and stuff so I figured you would have hated that and stuff.”  
Lex sighed. “I don’t hate you, Leon. I don’t think I can. We’re just very different, that's all. I just kind of need some time to figure some things out and research for a bit. If it makes you feel better, I’m sorry for isolating and making you think I hate you. It wasn’t fair to you and I guess I have been a bit harsh on you. For what it's worth, I apologize.”  
Leon looked up at Lex and Lex could see the edges of a smile creeping onto his face.

“Do you mean it?”

Lex though for a bit. If he said yes he could just attract Leon to try and spend more time with him when what he really needed to do was research. After all, someone had to remain in contact and report back to the GCR, find missions to go on, set up training regimes, etc… But when looking at Leon, the other half of him, he couldn’t bring himself to turn him down. He looked so hopeful and Lex didn’t want to tear him down like that, even if it meant having Leon pester him more and more.

“I suppose so.” Lex finally replied.

A wave of relief washed over Leon’s face, his smile fully returning to his face. Lex felt like he should feel like he doomed himself to a life of dealing with Leon, yet he couldn’t. He felt, semi-happy seeing his alternate self happy at something he had done. Lex backed a little bit away from Leon and sat at one end of the couch and Leon sat down at the other end of the couch. Leon kicked his legs up onto the coffee table to which Lex gave him a light glare, making him retract his legs back onto the floor. The two sat there in silence for a little bit, Lex looking out the window and Leon fiddling around with his thumbs. Leon decided that he hated the silence and went to pick up the tv remote, hesitating and expecting a response from Lex. 

“You don’t need my permission to do every little thing you know.”

Leon whipped his head to see Lex still looking out the window. He opened his mouth to ask how Lex knew that he was hesitant but was cut off by Lex’s voice ringing out again.

“You hadn’t turned on the tv despite the fact that you had the remote in your hand.”

“Oh.” That was all that Leon could say, taken by surprise by how Lex had hit the nail on the head. However, Lex did tell him he didn’t need his permission, so Leon turned on the tv and started flipping through the channels. Lex noticed a glint of something from looking out the window. He squinted his eyes, trying to see what it was again, yet was unable to see the flash of brightness that caught his eyes before. Lex shrugged it off but kept his eyes on the spot where he saw the glint just in case he could see it again.

“Hey, Lex,” Lex grunted in response, yet didn’t turn his head to address Leon. “When are we going to have our first actual mission? I’m starting to feel like we’ve been duped by the GCR.” 

“I don’t exactly know Leon,” Lex replied, eyes still focused on the window. “I think I’ve found a good starting mission for use. It's a simple ‘clear out the criminal den’ but I think that would do us good. Just to hone our skills and prepare us for harder assignments.” 

Leon didn’t reply. He understood what Lex was saying and fully understood by they needed a simple beginners mission. He had almost died in the alleyway with Coral. Simply put, they were not prepared if they could get jumped by 7 people in an alleyway. They needed training and deep down, Leon begrudgingly accepted that. He desperately wanted to take down major drug lords and become a legend among the GCR, but even those legends needed a starting place. Leon slunk further into the couch, setting the remote down after he found some kind of crime movie playing on one of the channels. 

Lex kept watching the window, looking for any anomalies on the streets, the houses, anywhere. The same glint caught his eyes again causing his head to whip around to its position. He then saw it. On the roof of the house across the street using the cover of the now setting sun, he saw the barrel of a rifle pointing into the window. He followed the gaze of the barrel. It wasn’t pointing at him, instead, it was pointing at…

“LEON, GET DOWN!” Leon was startled by the sudden yell from Lex and turned his head to see Lex diving out of his seat on the couch. Leon didn’t know what was happening or why Lex was acting like this. Then the sound of a shot rang out.

\-----------------------------------------------------

Coral was working diligently on her current project when she a yell come from upstairs followed up by a gunshot. Coral immediately stopped what she was doing and rushed to the stairs. Her mind raced with possibilities of what happened, her mind automatically assuming the worst. She had to make sure that no one was dead, even if it meant risking her safety. A second shot rang out as Coral reached the door. She could hear a faint “holy shit,” reassuring her that at least one of the two brothers had survived. She rammed open the basement door and burst into the kitchen. She started to run towards the living room when she hears Lex yell “Coral, stop!” Coral paused for a second before continuing forwards, inch by inch till she could just barely peer into the living room. Lex was laying down with his head on Leon’s lap. But that wasn’t what caught Coral off guard. No, that was attributed to the fact that Lex was bleeding from his right shoulder blade. Leon’s hands were painted red by Lex’s blood and it sufficed to say that the clothes they had on were ruined. Lex turned his head towards, gritting his teeth in pain as the sudden change in position agitated the gunshot wound. 

“It is a fucking sniper. Bastards on the roof of the house adjacent to us. Leon and I are pinned down over here and I don’t think we can get out without a bullet ripping through our bodies.” 

“What do you want me to do?” Coral asked in a rushed tone. It felt like each second they took strategizing was another second that the sniper was figuring out a way to line up a shot on them. 

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe take a trip to Caribia, take some time off and enjoy yourself. I want you to take out the snipers you dipstick!” Lex hissed out and laid his head back down on Leon’s lap. “Take your new shotguns and put them to some good use!” Coral didn’t think that she had ever seen Lex so pissed off. He didn’t act like he was shot, instead, he acted like he was just upset because someone told him a bad pun. It was the loosest he had ever been and it was because he was in pain from being shot. Regardless, Coral rushed back down to the basement and scrambled to the table she had left the box on. She pushed over a few glass beakers and test tubes while grabbing the box, all of which could be replaced later. What was important now was getting out there and providing a distraction for the brothers. She made her way back towards the stairs, only stopping to grab the item she had been working on previously. It may have just been experimental, but it was a risk she needed to take. She scrambled back into the kitchen and swiped her hand, clearing all the items off the table and letting them crash onto the ground. She slammed the box onto the table and hastily undid the latches and grabbed the shotguns. She tucked the sawed-off into the back of her pants and picked up the Winchester. After scouring the box for anything else, she realized that she didn’t even have any ammo for the shotguns. 

“Where are the shotgun shell?!” She yelled to the living room.

“I think there are some in the cabinet with all the cups. There are some buckshot rounds in there too” Leon responded followed up with a gunshot from the sniper. 

“Hey, can you like make the coffee table slide over to us? Lex says there are some hardballers tapped under its surface. Coral sighed and responded with a “One second!” before rushing over to the cabinet and searching for the shells. She pulled a box of shells out from the cabinet before taking a handful of both the regular and buckshot rounds and shoving them into her pant pockets. She then sneaked over to the entrance into the living room with the empty box and throwing it into the room. The sniper took a shot at the box and gave Leon the opportunity to dive to the coffee table and upturn it. He then proceeded to push the table while remaining under its cover so that it was close enough for him to roll from it to the spot under the window where Lex was laying. 

“Thanks!” Leon called back at her as she started to run towards the back door. She twisted the bronze knob and rammed the door open and rushed into the brisk afternoon island climate. A slight breeze whipped across Coral’s face as she ran bare feet on the green grass (she couldn’t grab her shoes because she had left them near the living room). She vaulted the neighbor's fence, the wood almost brushing her legs as she passed over it. She couldn’t just go straight towards the house that the sniper was at. The sniper would see her coming a mile away. She just needed to get about a bit away from the house before flanking the house. Once she determined she was far enough away from the house that the sniper wouldn’t see her she turned her direction towards the street and ran out into it. She dug the experimental device that she was working on out of her pocket and gripped it her right hand. The device was an experimental hook shot for Leon (the idea behind it came from Leon and her watching an old cartoon and Leon geeking out about the hook shot used). This was the devices first trial run and Coral was shitting herself with worry. If it didn’t work then she would have to run all the way to the house, risking the sniper seeing her. Then again, it could just blow up and knock her out, giving the sniper ample time to find a way to shoot Leon and Lex.

Coral pushed the thoughts out of her mind as she took aim at the roof of the house. She swore she could see a bit of the sniper and the barrel of the gun. She pulled the trigger of the hook shot and the three-pronged hook shot forward, the rope traveling behind it. The hook embedded itself in the wall just below the top of the roof and before she knew it, she was zooming through the air being pulled by the hook shot reeling itself in. It was clear to her that she needed to adjust the force and speed that the hook shot retracted as to avoid Leon and others getting whiplash. She reached the roof in no time, the hook retracting itself from the wall allowing Coral to grab the roof ledge and swing herself up and over it. She looked up came face to face with the barrel of the sniper’s rifle right between her eyes. She was able to look at the aggressor only to see that they were wearing a mask. It was a metal plague doctor's mask with glowing red eyes and red tally marks in the forehead and expressive eyelids. The slitted eyelids turned into a surprised expression, the gun barrel slightly lowering. 

“Cor?” A robotic voice asked Coral. The voice was unusually soft and Coral found herself strangely drawn to the voice. But with the sniper distracted and softened up, Coral struck out. She used her elbow to smack the rifle barrel down so it was facing the ground, then swung the Winchester shotgun in her hands at the face of the sniper. The shotgun connected with the sniper’s face and sent the sniper reeling backward and covering her face as the mask scattered to the ground. Coral took the opportunity to load two buckshot round into the shotgun and take aim at the sniper stumbled. She was fully prepared to give a quick and witty quip as soon as the sniper faced her only to then shoot the sniper and knock them out. The sniper turned back towards her and removed the hands that were covering her face. Coral came face to face with her lover, the one she adored and would do anything for. Her nose was bleeding from being hit by a shotgun barrel and there were a few scratches marking the places where the mask would have scrapped her as it fell off. Her face read all kinds of emotions, surprised, confused, upset, shameful. To be honest, Coral felt the same way. 

“Emily?” Coral asked, still with the shotgun aimed at her gut. She had no intention of shooting her but as far as she was concerned her girlfriend may be some cold-blooded murderer. As much as she loved her, she couldn’t afford to be shot by her for letting her guard down. Her fingers gripped the handle tighter and the ones on her other hand drummed slightly on the barrel. 

“Hey, sweety. How’s your day been?” Emily responded, lightly tossing her rifle to the ground and putting her hands up in an act of defeat.

Coral felt like she should be relieved. Her girlfriend wasn’t going to kill her on this rooftop and she possibly saved Lex and Leon. But Coral felt something else, something boiling beneath the surface. A powerful and angry emotion wanting to claw its way out of her. Rage. The rage of feeling betrayed, the feeling of finding out that your closest ally, your companion who had stuck by your side since high school, the one you loved and would do anything for was as far as you know just an act. It was like Coral had had her heart ripped out leaving nothing but an empty hole that was slowly being filled by raw emotion. She gripped the gun till her knuckles turned white, her pointer finger slowly moving towards the trigger. Coral didn’t even know what was going on, the memories of her relationship flashing in her eyes before being covered in a blanket of doubt and set on fire.  
Before she knew it, she felt the recoil of the shotgun bucking her grip and the loud blast as a round of buckshot flew out towards Emily. Emily had no time to react and the buckshot slammed into her, knocking her backward. Emily stumbled back towards the end of the roof and lost her balance and fell backward. Coral could do nothing but watch as she fell off the roof, plummeting a good two stories towards the ground. Coral cried out and rushed over to the edge, fully expecting to see the now corpse of her loved one. Instead, she saw Leon standing there, having caught the body of Emily. He looked up and smiled towards Coral. 

“You dropped something.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------

The police had come by about an hour ago to investigate multiple claims that there was gunfire in the area. Despite being injured, Lex still told them about the situation and gave them evidence that they worked for the GCR. Thankfully due to Leon’s pleads to not reveal anything about the mysterious sniper, Lex just said that they were attacked by a gang that knew who they were. They called an ambulance and took Lex away to get the bullet removed from his shoulder. Lex tried to reassure Coral and Leon that he was fine and could heal himself and remove the bullet from his shoulder but the two practically pushed him into the stretcher and strapped him in. If Lex was bitter he would have just thought that the two just really wanted him out of the house so they could goof off or something. But Lex wasn’t an idiot and knew that as smart as he claimed himself as he had no knowledge about medical procedures. Perhaps when he finally got out of the hospital he could rent or buy some books to read about the subject matter. For now, he was told to rest on the stretcher and have the doctors take care of him.

As Lex was finally taken away in the back of an ambulance, Leon turned back towards the house and sighed. There was going to be a breeze in the house until he could manage to get a new front window. Not to mention he had to clean up all the broken glass and replace the couch which had a few bullet holes in it. These were all things that could wait, for now, Leon had to be the adult in the situation and confront both Coral and the sniper to find out what happened on that rooftop and why Coral had fallen silent. Leon opened up the front door and closed it behind him. He kept his shoes on because more likely than not he would be walking on broken glass and he didn't want to go off to the hospital along with Lex for something as small as not being wary of the massive amount of broken glass that littered the living room floor. Leon walked towards the entrance to the basement where he knew Coral was. He walked down the stairs to see her sitting at one of the tables, head resting on her arms. He approached her slowly and pulled up a chair, careful not to make too much noise. 

“Hey, you ok?” Coral simply slowly nodded once and that was it.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Coral shook her head once and turned away, pretending to fiddle with a machine Leon knew nothing about. He could see that there was no way in hell that he could get Coral to talk to him so he stood up and prepared to walk to the door. Coral lightly grabbed his hand before he could take his first step. She placed in his hand an envelope addressed to Emily. Leon assumed that Emily was the name of the sniper and he knew what he had to do. The slowly nodded towards Coral and started walking towards the exit to the basement.

As he reached the halfway point of the stairs, a low depressed voice reached his ears. 

“She is my girlfriend. She never told me about this and was always leaving for long periods of time. We were going through a rough patch and I don’t think I can handle the relationship now. I’m was so mad at her that I almost killed her. Now I don’t know who I’m more upset with; her or myself.” Coral once again fell silent, signifying that was all she would reveal at this time. It pained Leon to see her like this, torn apart by someone’s double life and unable to trust them. Leon left the basement without another word, giving Coral the silence she desired. He made his way up the stairs to the second floor. They had locked the sniper up in a vacant room and tied her to a chair so she couldn't escape. Leon turned left after walking up the stairs and made his way to the room at the far end of the upstairs hallway. He opened up the door and walked inside, the door lightly shutting behind him. The sniper was in the same spot as before and showed no signs of trying to escape. She was very calm, considering the fact that they were technically holding her hostage. The sniper was a black jackal with pink dyed hair cut in a pixie cut. She was dressed in all black. Black hoodie, black tight sweatpants, back combat boots, all black. Leon suspected that this was all to blend into the night while on a hit. 

“Emily?” Leon wanted to make sure that Emily was her actual name and that Coral was not talking about someone else.  
The Jackal looked up towards him, silently giving him the information that that was her name. 

“Do you mind if I sit down for a bit?” 

“There isn’t anywhere to sit down.” Leon knew this but was trying his hardest to act like Lex would have in this situation. 

“I know, I’m just going to sit down on the floor,” Leon grunted as he crouched down to sit on the carpeting. “So, I’m going to ask you a few questions and I want you to give me whatever answers you have.”

“And why would I do that. Just an hour ago I tried to kill you. What makes you think that I would give you any kind of help.” Emily smugly answered him  
Leon sighed. “Look, you don’t look like an idiot. I’m saying this because you just attacked a division of the GCR which means you are either completely braindead, too self-confident, being paid a lot of money, or you are desperate.”

Emily looked to the ground, squirming in her chair but still saying nothing. Leon knew what he had to say next, but he sure as hell wasn’t excited to do so. 

“I also know that you are in a romantic relationship with Coral. The fact that you didn’t shoot her on the rooftop proves that you aren’t a totally heartless bastard and that your feelings for her weren’t an act. I also know that as much as you both are hurting right now it won’t get any better if you don’t cooperate.”

Emily looked very uncomfortable now, her eyes switching between emotions. Leon really didn’t like saying that. It felt like he was emotionally manipulating someone to give him answers and information. It didn’t feel like something he would do, especially to someone who had positive ties to Coral. Leon decided that he really hated interrogating and would ask Lex to do it from now on. 

“It doesn’t matter anyway, I'm a dead man walking as far as I’m concerned.” Emily sighed out, once again looking back at the ground. Leon felt kind of proud that he was right about her being desperate. At least now he had something to work off of, a starting place. 

“Well Emily, I think we can help you with your current predicament, but we can’t do anything without some solid information about what is happening. We need answers like what was your job, who hired you, why did they want to attack the GCR. We can then see if we can help you in any way shape or form.” 

The next few minutes the two sat there in silence, Leon twiddling his thumbs and Emily deep in thought. If she gave them information then she would surely be hunted down like a dog. Any dream of a normal life would be shattered by a never-ending onslaught of bullets. She would always have to remain on the run. She would have to leave Coral behind, everything she ever knew. She would have to change her name, face, identity, everything all to survive another day. Criminal organizations would always be hunting for her and wouldn’t stop till she lay in a pool of her blood. That being said, the fact that she failed an assignment for Alfonso meant that she was already a dead man walking. Even if she stayed in her line of business she would always have to be wary of Alfonso and his gang trying to kill her. If felt like every option she had now just lead to her eventual death.

“Fuck it, I’m dead as it is, might as well give someone information that can help them avenge me.” Emily looked back at Leon, a sly smile on the corner of her mouth. And so she told him everything. She told him about her hitman for hire job she was a part of, how she was employed to Alfonso, how he gave her the mission to attack the GCR, how she couldn’t follow through after finding Coral pointing a shotgun at her. She kept all the details about her relationship with Coral and her backstory to herself, that was a story that she didn’t trust anyone with. Leon just sat there on the floor, a small notebook in hand taking notes on the more important parts of what she said. After she finished he simply stood up and moved to the back of her chair. She didn’t know what was happening until she felt the rope that was binding her to slacken and fall to the ground. She looked at her wrists, red and irritated by the rope, then looked up at Leon, face full of questions. 

He seemed to understand what she wanted and softly said, “Come on, let's go for a walk.” Emily obliged, probably because Leon was still carrying a gun and she was defenseless. She could always try to snatch the gun before he shot at her, but she didn’t want to take that chance. The two left the house and walked out into the cool spring night. They walked down the sidewalk for a bit, neither saying a word. It was Leon who broke the silence.

“From what you told me, it sounds like you are royally fucked.” Emily couldn’t help but smile at that, even if it was true. Leon put an arm out to stop her from walking and looked her in the eyes.

“Look, I want to help you. I think I know how to but I don’t think you are going to like it.” 

“Well, I don’t have any other options. I was going to go back to Alfonso and have him set up a min firing squad for me.” Emily lightly chuckled, though there was an underlying sadness to that statement. It wasn’t just a joke, it was her realizing that she didn’t have any other options in this scenario. As she saw it, she was already dead and nothing could help her now. 

“I can offer you a job working for us. You will have protection under the GCR, a right to carry a gun around to defend yourself with, a safe place to work.” Emily burst out into laughter. It felt surreal. The person she had just tried to kill not even two hours ago was now offering her a job working for them. It was downright laughable to think that the GCR would even hire her. She looked over to Leon through bits of laughter only to see him with the same smile he seems to wear. 

“Your joking, right?” 

“Not at all Emily. We have permission from the GCR to hire whomever we desire. That’s how we employed Coral. She was walking home after being fired and I called her in, we did an interview and hired her.” This was all news to Emily. She had suspected something happened with Coral as she was coming home a bit later but Emily just figured that that was just because she was working later or needed to finish up some work or experiment. 

“But I can’t just get out of my old job, I’m going to be hunted down and that fight will end up at your front doorstep.” 

“Let it come then. I just stocked us up on ammo just in case we have to hold up in the house.” Leon joked. Emily couldn’t believe it. How could someone be so calm a kind when being faced with bringing death to their own home. It was extraordinary to see someone so confident that they could beat death that Emily was kind of impressed. She let out a low chuckle at the mere thought of someone challenging the odds for someone they didn’t know. 

“Heh, I like you kid. You remind me of myself when I first started being a hitman. Confident, loyal even to a fault. Tell you what, you keep me entertained and well feed and you  
have yourself a deal.” Leon’s smile grew to the point that Emily was worried he would split the ends of his lips. 

“Well, in that case, let's start walking back to the house so we can make everything official. I’ll tell you my story.” 

\---------------------------------------------------------------

Everything felt like it was out of a fantasy book for Emily. After hearing Leon’s backstory she still found it hard to believe even if there was evidence behind it. Leon had told her everything on the way back to the house, the two walking a bit slower as they talked. They were now roughly around a block away from the house and they had entered the middle-class area of the city a while ago. Emily had decided that it would be better for her to stay at the house and live there to protect Coral from being caught in the crossfire of anyone trying to carry out a hit on her. Speaking of Coral, Emily still had to find out what was going to happen between them now. They had both lied to each other (granted Emily’s lie was much much worse than Coral’s) and given their already strained relationship Emily feared confrontation with her.  
Leon and Emily were now approaching the house, Leon groaning as he realized that he still had to clean up the glass in the living room.

“Oh ya, by the way, sorry about making such a mess of your house.” 

“No need to apologize, you were just trying to do your job.” Emily caught a hint of annoyance in Leon’s voice as he started up the steps to the front door, which was understandable as the glass was a pain in the ass to clean up. 

“Hey, Leon?” 

“Ya?” He stopped as he was just about to open up the door and turned back to face Emily. The two just stood there, Leon waiting for the question and Emily awkwardly shuffling on her feet. The light spring breeze mixed with the sound of bugs buzzing about and a few lone cars driving down the road to make an almost calming atmosphere around them. The calming effect didn’t help Emily, though, as she worried about confronting Coral in the house. Leon started to turn back towards the door and Emily knew she needed to speak up. 

“What's going to happen between me and Coral?” She finally managed to squeak the words out of her mind. She was kind of embarrassed about showing such a weakness to Leon and was prepared for Leon to start laughing at her for keeping such a strong independent vibe about her than becoming a clueless mess when it came to romance. 

“What do you think should happen now?” Leon answered her with a question. To be honest, Emily didn’t have an answer to this question. She wanted nothing more but to mend their now broken relationship. The broken relationship that was caused directly because of her. Even though she wanted this, she knew deep down that she didn’t deserve it. She had hurt Coral badly and attacked her friends. She was also upset that Coral shot her, but to a minor extent. It was more a matter of being upset at herself than what Coral did. 

“I, I don’t know.” That was the only truthful answer she had. Leon hummed and pulled an envelope from his pocket.  
“Perhaps this will help out the matter. It’s from Coral, she told me to give this to you. I think now would be the best time too.” He motioned for Emily to come up the steps and take the envelope to which she hesitantly did. She held it in her hands. There was nothing on the outside of the envelope, no address, no names, no nothing. Emily put the envelope into her back pocket, she didn’t feel like reading it when she was with Leon; she would save it till she was alone.  
“Thank you, Leon. For everything.” 

“Don’t mention it. Now, I’ve got to go clean up the living room and we don’t have a spare bed for you yet. I’ll go out and buy one for you in the morning. For now, you can sleep in my room, it's the one at the end of the left hallway. And before you say anything about where I will sleep, don’t worry. I can just sleep in Lex’s room. After all, he gets to sleep in a nice and comfortable hospital bed tonight.”

Emily didn’t have the energy to argue with him and she made her way up the stairs and to Leon’s room. She heard Leon starting to sweep as she closed the door to his room. It was a barren room, which surprised Emily as she thought for sure that it would have been filled with all kinds of things. She put a mental reminder to ask Leon about it in the morning. For now, she flopped down onto his bed, the mattress sinking under her weight and giving her a soft hug. She took the envelope out from her back pocket and turned it over in her hands a few times. She finally decided to stop procrastinating and took her claw and used it as a letter opener, narrowly avoiding accidently giving herself a small papercut in the process. She pulled out a small sheet of paper that was folded in half. Emily let out an anxious breath and unfolded the slip of paper.  
Written on the slip was four simple little words. Four crushing little words that felt like they were threatening to suffocate her. She reread the four words so many times that they felt like they were burned into the back of her head. She crumpled up the piece of paper and threw it to the garbage can that Leon had set up in the lower right corner of the room. It hit the rim and fell to the ground, but Emily was too tired and too upset to care. She turned over in the bed and closed her eyes, the four words haunting her as she fell into a restless sleep. Four simple words 

“We need a break”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, Ender here. Wanted to try out double spacing the paragraphs to make things more spaced out and organized. Anyway, so ends the section that I like to call "The Coral Saga." There were originally going to be very large chapters that would have been 3 or 4 chapters split up into parts all under a chapter name. I decided against it as it would get a bit messy with upcoming chapters. Be sure to give me feedback in the comments and ask me any questions about the story on tumblr or when I'm streaming.


	6. Mission: Breach

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song: Make It Bun Dem, Skrillex from the Far Cry 3 Soundtrack

Leon parked the car a bit off the road so it was harder to spot. He nodded at Coral in the passenger seat and nodded back at Emily in the backseat. They both knew what he was saying and got out of the car and went to the trunk, Leon following close behind. Leon opened up the trunk and removed the fake floor to reveal their guns. He passed them out one by one to their respective owners and saved his for last. He closed the trunk and followed Coral along the path to their target. Emily accompanied them for a bit before breaking away to a section of densely packed trees. Coral and he continued down the path, the sound of their boots crunching on a mixture of rocks and fallen leaves. Rays of sunlight penetrated the dense green foliage and dotted the landscape. The occasional bug buzzed by their face only to be met with a swat of the hand.

The two remained in silence, neither saying a word. Things had been very quiet lately, Coral going straight down to the basement as soon as she got to the house. Lex had gotten out of the hospital and had been working tirelessly on setting up this raid for them. He sadly couldn’t come with them, doctors orders so that he didn’t hurt the healing process. Emily had moved into her own room and only came out when Coral was down in the basement. Leon suspected that she wanted to avoid any awkward or painful interactions with her. Today in the car was one of the only times the two had actually been in the same space together since that night on the rooftop.

Leon kept himself quiet, not wanting to say something wrong and start a disagreement between the two. He figured it would be best to keep the atmosphere silent so they could figure things out for themselves. The house now carried a tense atmosphere about it and Leon was glad to be out on a field mission so he could avoid it. He found himself hanging out more and more with Lex just so he could avoid the deathly silence that Coral had fallen into. It pained him to no end to see the two like this but he didn’t want to jeopardize anything by being rash.

Leon was brought out of his thinking by the shape of a house coming into view. They had just about reached their destination and Leon grabbed his AUG that he had strapped to his back. Coral also readied her shotgun, making sure it was fully loaded and checking her ammo supply. The two gave a nod and spilt up. The plan that Lex had outlined for them was that Leon would attack from the front while Coral ambushed from the back. Emily would provide support and pick off easy targets from the woods. The plan was very flexible, allowing for analysis of each individual's quick thinking.  
Leon unhooked the hook shot Coral had made him from his belt. He clasped the handle and readied himself. His plan was to hookshot up to the second story and clear the floor while Coral works on clearing the floor beneath him. He now stood about 50 feet from the house. It was a two-story wooden house with boarded-up windows. The wood sidings of the house were beginning to be overrun by mold and vines creeping their way upwards and curling around the window frames. Small lizards and geckos darted up the sidings to rest on the vines while the occasional bird squeaked out a call to a non-existent partner. The forest seemed to still around Leon as he examined the house. 

As far as anyone knew, this house was abandoned, most likely condemned and abandoned to rot. He knew better though. Inside this house was a meth lab controlled by the terrors. After doing some research, Lex had found out that the terrors weren't just some small gang that jumped people on the street. In fact, they were a relatively large gang, dealing in weapon and drug trades. Hell, they even sold some of their products on the black market. They had some power in the city and competed with other large groups of criminals. As the terrors were the first to attack their small group it only felt right to make them their first raid. Leon took in the stillness of the forest for another moment before aiming the hook shot at a window on the second floor and firing. In a second he was sailing in the air sticking out his feet so he could stop himself from planting face first into the wall. While still holding the hook shot, he took out slung his AUG back into his hands and smashed open the closest window, the boards clattering to the floor. 

As Leon climbed through the head the sounds of footsteps rapidly approaching his position. He pulled out the knife he had tucked into his belt and crouched down low to the ground. He pressed himself up against the nearest wall next to the door. The footsteps were becoming louder now and Leon prepared to make his move. He slipped his 9mm out of his pocket and held it in his other hand just as the first group of terrors entered the room. They didn’t spot him at first and Leon took the moment to get behind the nearest one. 

He jammed the knife into the person’s throat, the man letting out a squeak as he fell to the ground. The rest of his group turned to face Leon as he aimed his gun, lining up a headshot on one of them and managing to hit another in the shoulder. The one hit in the shoulder let out a yell, most likely alerting the rest of the terrors in the building. Leon dove out of the door as a rain of bullets hailed towards him. Using the door frame as cover, Leon emptied his pistol magazine into the room, hitting one man in the leg and another in the gut. Both dropped their guns and fell to the ground in pain. 

Leon reloaded his pistol and slipped it back into his pocket, swinging his AUG back into his hands. He could hear more footsteps approaching and he realized that he didn’t have the best of cover. He ran into a nearby room, one filled with different wooden crates some of which were open and had a crowbar lawing nearby them. Leon ran over to one of the open boxes and peered inside. This particular box had different cleaning products inside, probably for cooking sloppy drugs. He bent down and picked up a crowbar that had slid to the ground. He then rushed back to the door frame of the room and waited for whoever was coming to check the room. He heard footsteps enter the room next to him and he gripped the crowbar harder, the feeling of slightly rusted metal cooling his hands. 

Loud gunshots could be heard beneath him along with the occasional yell. Coral must have also breached the house and was working on taking out the first floor. In the adjacent room, orders could be heard being given out in a different language Leon couldn’t identify. He once again readied himself for someone to walk into his room, gripping the crowbar like a baseball bat.

The sound of heavy boots could be heard approaching the door and  
Leon saw the tip of an AK barrel peeking through the door frame. As soon as Leon could see the shape of a person in the doorway he swung the crowbar like a bat at his head. The tip of the crowbar caught the man in the jaw the jagged edge ripping through his cheek, blood pooling in the opponent's mouth, muffling his screams of pain. Leon pulled the crowbar back towards him, the flesh of the man’s jaw ripping as the crowbar tore back out of his mouth. Once he had the crowbar back in his control, he swung the crowbar into the man ’s head, putting an end to his misery. By now the rest of the guards were alerted to where he was, orders being given to kill him along with the name of the room he was in. 

Grabbing his AUG, he crouched in the doorway, watching as various terrors of all species entered the connecting room. Leon took aim and fired, his bullets hitting their mark and slamming into his opponents. Despite the pile of bodies now filling up, they kept coming through the doorways like they didn’t care about being shot. Leon had to duck behind the door frame every once in a while to reload or to use it as cover when there were too many in the room. 

Blood pooled from the bodies, staining the rotting woods red and dripping into the floor below it. The number of gang members had died down by now, only around 3 were left in the room, all cowering in cover. Leon was worn out by this point, his trigger finger aching from holding the trigger of his guns. He was now almost completely out of ammunition, empty bullet casings surrounding his feet. For as small as this house seemed to be, there sure were a lot of people in it. Leon briefly wondered how such a small house had managed to contain so many troops. He pushed the thought out of his mind as he fired a bullet into one of the remaining gang member’s head. 

The last two men in the room panicked as they saw one of their last comrades fall to the ground dead. They made a break for the door, tossing their guns to the ground in a mad dash for the hallway.

Leon let them go, he was far too tired to gun them down. Two loud gunshot blasts sounded from the hallway making Leon look back up. Coral walked through the door, face and clothes covered in blood. She was panting hard, a sign of a tough battle won. The tip of her shotgun was a mixture of crimson red and molten orange. Smoke billowed out of the barrel as Coral loaded two more shells into the clip. She walked over to the room where Leon was, stepping over dead bodies and pools of blood to get there. She turned to face him, a wild look in her eyes slowly dissipating when she saw him. 

“You look like shit.” Leon jokes, his smile small and exhausted  
Coral laughed and sank down next to where he was sitting. 

“Well, you don’t exactly look like you’re in your Sunday best either.”  
Leon snorted as a reply and pressed his head lightly against the wall. He finally let go of his grip on his AUG, the gun sliding to the floor with a clank. Coral lightly placed her gun to her side, lowering her head to catch her breath. She wiped her bloody hands on her shirt, though it did little as it was also filled with blood. 

“God, I hope I don’t get a disease from these people’s blood. I’m sure some of it splashed into my mouth at one point.” Leon breathed out, his joke staying in the air between them. They fell into a comfortable silence, both knowing that the other was exhausted and too tired to talk. A few minutes passed in silence before Coral spoke up.

“They have a meth lab downstairs.” 

“Oh, do they now.” Leon tried to follow up with a normal response, even if the subject came out of the blue. 

“Yes, I can rig the thing to blow by adding the wrong chemicals.” 

“What about the forest?” 

“The trees will be far enough away from the house that the explosion won't hurt them. Beside’s I want to be gone when the police get here. I don’t have the energy to talk with them and explain everything.”

Leon fully understood where she was coming from and agreed with her. They could have Lex deal with contacting the authorities and explaining their raid to them when they were back at the house resting. 

“Well,” Leon started as he began to stand up, “we better go rig that meth lab to blow then, ya. I want to get out of here as soon as possible. We still have a bit of a ride to get back to the house and I want to get back there so I can take a nice hot shower and a nap.”  
Coral stood up with him and grunted her affirmation. The two picked up their guns and tucked them away, starting to walk to the stairs downstairs. However, when the reached the hallway a sudden force flung the two back against the wall. They looked up to see a figure in the hallway with their hands outstretched. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was happening. 

“Witch!” Coral yelled out. A bowl of cold wind rushed through the hallway and pelted the two’s faces. The man flicked his left hand, sending Leon crashing through the wall of the room they were just in. He hit the ground with a thud, wood splintering on the ground where he collapsed. He tried to reach his gun, but a force smacked it from his back, the gun skidding across the wooden floor. He heard Coral yell and turned his head to see her also flying into the room, thrown by the witch. He covered his head as wood fell around him like small daggers. The witch once again turned his attention back to Leon, sending him up in the air before slamming him through the floor. Leon fell before landing with his back hitting a table. The table cracked and folded in on itself as Leon’s weight coupled with the force of the fall was too much for the table to bear.

Leon groaned and tried to go get back up, wood cutting into his legs and scratched at his arms. He stumbled back to his feet, swaying slightly as he regained focus. He looked up to see Coral falling through the hole he had made, landing in the pile of wood shards. Leon refocused on the hole and saw the witch gently descending through the hole, hovering in the air. Leon grabbed a nearby plank of wood and held it up, ready to fight. He had no energy but he was determined to not die today. The witch let out a low chuckle and raised her hand towards Leon. Leon prepared to be flung across the room until he heard the sound of a shot ring out. He looked back at the witch to see her with a deep hole in the middle of his forehead. The witch fell to the ground dead. Behind him stood Emily, looking through the scope of her rifle. She lowered the barrel and smiled a cocky smile at Leon. Emily had also seen her and was now standing up. 

“I thought you were supposed to stay away from the house and snipe.” It was Coral who said it, a tone of annoyment. Emily cockily smiled at her, her eyes betraying her smug expression with a flash of pain.

“I got bored, I figured I could get some more experience by coming in closer. Besides, it seems like you guys needed me.” Leon and Coral were far too tired and beaten with their wounds to argue. Leon reached down to his leg and pulled out a sliver of wood that had stabbed him when he fell onto the table. He tossed it to the side and started walking towards the door. 

“Hey Emily, can you drive? I’m a bit exhausted, not to mention injured.” Emily sucked in a breath through her teeth. 

“Ohh, sorry Leon. I left my license at the house. Guess I can’t drive  
back.”

Leon groaned, defeated and began walking towards the car, Coral limping behind him and Emily lackadaisical skipping after them, stopping to throw a grenade she had brought into the house. They didn’t bother to look back as the house exploded, not because they wanted to look cool but because they just wanted to get back home, shower and rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ender’s big book of world building:  
> Witches: In this world witches exist. After the Salem witch trials witches were outed to the world. They have since endured many hardships, facing discrimination from everyone. Witches were once put to death and when WW2 came about they were put in concentration camps along with the Jewish people and anyone else the nazis deemed unperfect. There was a catch however. If any witch worked with the nazis in the army they could avoid being put in the camps. This lead to many joining the army to avoid being put to death. The rest of the world saw this as witches trying to get back at them and when the war ended witches faced more discrimination than ever. It hasn’t been till recently that people have softened up to witches, though many still see them as a threat.  
> In order for someone to become a witch they have to have either witches blood in them or preform a special ritual. There are many different types of witches, each specializing in one type of magic. Pyromancy and aquamancy are common two very common forms of witchcraft. Other forms include hex magic, the process of using hexes as traps or to strengthen oneself by using a basic form of a different magic type, aeromancy, using air and force, ritual and psy witches, witches that perform rituals for a cause or can use psychic energy. Various types of magic have been outlawed even among the witching community. These include necromancy, various types of harmful voodoo, and satanic magic that directly gets its source from Hell with nothing as a dampener. The magic of transmogrification has been all but wiped out for being much to dangerous and sadistic.


	7. A Job Well Done

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song: Buttercup by Jack Stauber

The group had finally arrived back at the house after around 3 hours because traffic decided to be extremely long due to people trying to rush off to the beath. The gang crashed through the door and rushed off to the showers, practically trampling each other in a race to be the first in. Leon and Coral made it to the showers first, Emily waiting until they had finished. After washing the blood and smell of gunpowder off of in the shower, Leon had walked back into his room wrapped in a towel and changed into his set of loose clothes that he called his pajamas. Leon had collapsed onto his bed and immediately fell asleep. Someone else could tell Lex about how the mission went Leon was going to rest now. He wrapped himself up in his blankets and closed his eyes, letting sleep wash over him.

\---------------------------------------------------------

Leon finally awoke from his deep slumber to sun shining through the window, lightly warming the blankets he was wrapped under. He raised his hand to block out the rays of light that were shining into his eyes. Groggily he tossed the blankets off of him and rose to his feet, stumbling as he gained his balance. He walked over to the dresser across from his bed and dug out a fresh change of clothes, changing out of his pajamas and into a light green t-shirt with a poker chip design that said: “The game was rigged from the start” in the center of the chip and a pair of olive-colored shorts. Not even bothering combing his bed head he made his way downstairs, hearing the light snoring coming from Emily’s room. He was surprised to see Coral still there in the house. She had fallen asleep on the living room couch, hand hanging off the side as she lightly tossed and turned in her sleep. Making is way into the kitchen he saw Lex sitting down at the table, book in one hand and an apple in the other. He turned and nodded towards Leon. 

“Good morning Leon.”

“Good morning Lex.”

“How did the mission go?” ‘Shit someone must not have told him, everyone must have just fallen asleep as soon as they arrived back home’ Leon thought, making his way to the pantry to grab some cereal. 

“It went fine I guess. Cleared out the house of all gang members and blew it up to damage their product. They had a witch who tossed us around for a bit, slammed us through some wood and bruised us a bit. We took her out, though.” Leon rummaged through the pantry trying to find any kind of cereal. He eventually found it pushed back in the far corner. He pulled it out and moved over to the refrigerator to pull the milk out. 

“Well, I would have liked you to keep the house intact so I could investigate it for evidence but damaging the terror’s production line also works. Good job.” Lex’s face remained stoic, though the words made Leon smile a bit. He walked over to the table and placed the milk and cereal down and turned around to grab a bowl and spoon. Early morning birds chirped outside the house, flying about from telephone pole to telephone pole. Leon grabbed his bowl and a small plastic spoon and sat down across from Lex at the table. The two quietly ate, neither exchanging a word. Leon looked at the clock on the microwave. It read 9:23 a.m. 

‘It seems like Lex doesn’t care that we are starting late. Maybe it’s his way of saying thanks for the mission’ Leon wondered as Emily came walking down the steps. She stopped to look at the sleeping body of Coral for a second before entering into the kitchen and exchanging good mornings with the brothers. She grabbed a bag of chips from the pantry and sat next to Lex at the table. Apparently, the rustling of the bag had woken up Coral as she groggily walked into the kitchen, grunting at Leon and Lex’s greetings, and grabbed a protein bar. Once she had sat next to Leon and averted her eyes from the Emily, Lex broke the silence. 

“So, I have been informed from Leon that you all did a good job with the mission yesterday. As a reward, I think that you all should take the day off.” 

Everyone turned to look at him, a picture of surprise painted on their faces. Lex lightly blushed, flustered at the sudden attention. Coral had stopped mid-bite to stare at him and Emily had been in the process of shoving a pile of chips into her face.

“Look, I can be nice sometimes. I saw how exhausted you all were when you came back so I figured that you could use a day off. If you don’t want it then you all can get back to work and…”

“NO!” Everyone said in unison, cutting Lex off before he could continue. 

“Well then, if you are all so adamant about having the day off, I recommend making the most of it.” Lex stood up and grabbed his bookmaking his way to the stairs. Leon stopped him before he continued any further.

“Will you be joining us then, Lex?” Lex paused at Leon’s question, a silence once again filling the room. Finally, Lex said, “No, I don’t think so. I’ve got a good amount of work to get done and it's going to take longer now because of my injury.”

“I said I was sorry!” Emily yelled from the kitchen. Lex disregarded her and looked Leon in the eyes. He could tell that he was disappointed that Lex couldn’t come and to be honest, Lex felt like he did need a break from his work. It was just the injury that made the work pile up. If it didn’t get done the GCR would be wondering about where their report on their mission was and would probably take a visit out to see them and would probably ruin their day by making everyone paranoid that they would report something bad back to HQ. Lex kept telling himself that this was for the others as he ascended the stairs and walked down the right hallway to his room, closing the door lightly behind him.

\-------------------------------------------------------

Leon went back downstairs and faced Coral and Emily who were sitting at the table. Both looked up at him waiting for an answer. Leon simply shook his head slowly and returned to his seat next to Coral. The group stayed in silence, the sound of the early morning being the only sound in the room. 

“So what are we going to do with our day off?” Emily questioned, breaking the silence of the room. 

“Whatever we like I guess. I mean, it's basically just another Sunday for me because I don’t live here and don’t come in on Sunday. You two can do whatever you like though.” Coral cockily spoke up, the last comment said with a slightly snide tone in her voice that Leon assumed was directed towards Emily. He had noticed that Coral was more often than not provoking Emily with wordplay to make her feel guilty. It seemed to be working as Emily stared down at the table and fiddled her thumbs, clearly uncomfortable. Leon decided to redirect the conversation as soon as possible.

“Hey, how about we go to a bar. I haven’t had anything but cheap alcohol from convenience stores and I could go for a nice shot something high quality.” The sentence was a lie. Leon was perfectly content with a regular light beer with a hint of lime or some other fruity flavor and really didn’t need anything else. He only suggested a bar because it seemed like the go-to place for adults; at least, in movies it is. The other two seemed to ponder the proposal for a bit, the silence once again returning to the room for a moment. 

“You know what, that's actually a good idea. I could go for a shot of good whiskey and get my mind off of things. Hell, maybe I’ll find a new ‘friend.’” At that, Emily promptly stood up from her chair and made her way to the stairs, walking up to them and presumably heading to her room. 

‘Well, that certainly wasn’t I wanted to happen.’ Leon thought to himself. He felt guilty for only making the Emily and Coral situation worse. He knew that there was technically nothing he could do if Coral wanted to be antagonistic but he still felt like he had somehow encouraged her or given her the opportunity to hurt Emily. He politely excused himself from the table telling Coral that he would find a bar to go to and they would leave at around 8 or 9. He walked up the steps and made his way to Emily’s room. The door was closed and light music could be heard emanating from the room. He knocked on the door and received no answer. He gently opened the door a crack and called Emily’s name into the room. He peered into the room and saw Emily sitting on the edge of her bed adjusting her violin. She didn’t even regard Leon when he went in and sat down next to her on the bed.

“Hey, are you ok?”

“Peachy,” Emily replied, her tone sounding dead and drained.   
Leon could tell that she wasn't ok but decided to wait a moment before pressing on the issue. Instead, he looked around the room, now decorated with Emily’s belongings. Various posters for rock groups lined the walls and a wooden dresser sat across from the end of the bed they were sitting on. A few boxes were stacked in the corner of the room and a wardrobe was placed in the top right corner of the room. Emily's sniper rifle was laying next to the wardrobe with some ammo scattered about the carpeting. The bed now had black covers with a skull design in the middle. A small speaker was placed on top of the dresser playing a soft melody that didn’t seem to fit the metal feel of the room. 

The two sat on the bed in silence for a bit, the melody changing from song to song. Leon finally decided to break the silence.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen your violin before.”

“Hmm, oh ya, it's from my mother. She made me learn how to play the violin and piano. I’m not really in the mood to talk about her, though.” 

“Bad memories?”

Emily didn’t respond and only nodded silently, giving a clear indication not to press her anymore on the topic of her family.

“So, do you want to go to the bar later today?” 

“I-I don’t know. I feel like Coral is just going to use it as an opportunity to remind me how much I fucked up.”

Leon understood where she was coming from. Coral had taken every opportunity to send shots out at Emily and make her feel guilty. Leon could tell that they both were hurting, even if they had different ways of going about settling everything.

“Look, Emily, I know Coral is being a bit of a bitch right now,” Emily gave a light-hearted snort at that comment and Leon continued on, “but you are giving her the exact reaction she wants. By mopping around like this you are only encouraging her to continue treating you like shit.”

“But I can’t ever stop acting like this. Maybe if I keep acting like this she will see how much I’m hurting and, I don’t know, maybe forgive me or something.”

“Emily, I’m going to channel my inner Lex and give it to you bluntly: That idea is terrible. You are only putting yourself down to try and get her to pity you. That isn’t healthy for either of you.”

“But what else can I do Leon!” Emily raised a voice a bit, almost enough to startle Leon.

“Show her that you can play the exact same game. Show her that you can also move on and that what she is doing doesn’t phase you. Maybe then she will realize how childish she is being. And if she doesn’t want to get back together with you at least maybe you can keep her friendship”

“But I want to be back together with her. I don’t think I can ever be content with just being a friend.”

“Look, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, just go out and show her that what she is doing doesn’t hurt you, even if you have to lie out of your ass to do so. Come with us to the bar and there you can show her the new you.” 

Emily let out a defeated sigh and placed the violin on the floor next to the bed. She looked back up to meet Leon’s eyes, hers now glossy with the beginnings of tears. She just collapsed into Leon’s chest, shaky breaths coming in and out as she struggled not to cry. Leon just sat there and held her, helping his friend through. After about a minute Emily stood back up and sniffled a bit before taking a deep breath.

“Ok, I’ll take your advice. I don’t think it's going to work but I’ve got to try something.”

“That's good. We’re leaving at about 8 or 9 in the afternoon so we have some time to spare. You can use my PlayStation in my room if you want to clear your head a bit. I’m going downstairs to finish work on the music room.” Emily gave a slight nod and made her way over to Leon’s room, closing the door behind her. Leon exhaled and fell backward on Emily’s bed. He couldn’t help but feel like he made the wrong decision and that the situation was only going to get worse from here. This trip to the bar was going to be a nightmare of a test run. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Falling, the feeling of weightlessness. Infinite falling down an invisible pit. Darkness enveloped all that could be seen. Falling for eternity, the only sound that could be heard was the rush of the wind. When you are falling for so long your mind tends to wander. It wanders to the dark corners of your mind, the mistakes you wish you could change. The memories playing back in your mind, every detail recounted in startling detail torturing you for what remains of your life. You know that when you reach the bottom that your life has come to an end but an argument could be made that it was better than the torture of your mind. You close your eyes wishing that you could just reach the end of the pit so you could be put out of your misery. The memories are starting to manifest, taking the form of bodiless voices replaying the moment. The emotions swarming your mind as the voices haunt you. Falling, falling, falling.

Rocco awoke with a start, for a moment believing that he was still falling in that empty void. Once he calmed down he stood up from the couch he was sleeping on, the blankets falling onto the floor. Rocco untangled his horns that had been stuck in his pillowcase and threw it back onto the couch, stretching his arms and legs before making his way to the bathroom. He stumbled on clothes and bottles that lined the floor and shoved open the door and flicked the light on. He stared at his own reflection, rubbing his soft brown coat of fur with a white belly outlined by black lines. His straight antlers were beginning to curve back a bit, a sign that it was time to shave them down a bit. Rocco’s blonde hair now reached down a bit past his shoulders, messy from the rough night's rest. Rocco could care less as he grabbed his toothbrush that was laying near the soap and a tube of toothpaste and began to brush his teeth. 

After finishing brushing his teeth and lightly brushing his hair he walked back into the room he walked back to the couch, picking up a duffle bag that lay beside it. He grabbed a pair of clothes from the duffle bag and changed into them, flinging the old ones in the direction of his drum set that sat in the corner of the room collecting dust. He made his way to stairs that lead to the first floor of the house. Upon reaching the first floor he passed by the small living room with patchy couches and made his way to the kitchen. Rocco sighed upon seeing the pitiful state of the kitchen. The screws of the cabinets were becoming to come loose and the countertops were covered in various empty containers. Crumbs and peelings covered what used to be a cutting board and the trash was overflowing. Thank god no one ever came in this house or else he would have died of embarrassment. He was supposed to have cleaned the mess yesterday but had forgotten to after getting back to the house at 1 in the morning. 

Rocco made his way to the small fridge that sat in the corner of the kitchen. He grabbed an egg and a carton of milk from the fridge before closing it behind him. He then set to work making breakfast, grabbing a pan from one of the cabinets that had particularly squeaky hinges and placed it on the stove. He cracked the egg over the pan watching as it leaked into the pan. Rocco set to pouring a glass of milk while the egg cooked and grabbed a plate for the egg for after it finished. Once the egg was done, Rocco placed the egg on the plate and grabbed the glass of milk. He then exited the kitchen with the breakfast in hand and made his way back to the living room, turning to enter a small hallway near where the entrance to the basement was. His destination was a door towards the end of the small hallway. The door was slightly ajar allowing light to pour into the dimly light hallway. He turned into the room, the familiar smell of floral air fresheners filling his nostrils. The room was small, only about 9 ft by 9 ft with a single window that was the one source of light at the moment. To the right of the window was a small bedside table with a clock and glasses lying on top of it and a queen size bed with pastel floral designed bed sheets. A lump on the bed was the only evidence that someone was there.

Rocco walked over to the bedside table and moved the glasses on top of the clock and placed the plate of eggs and the glass of milk where the glasses used to be. He looked over to the bed to observe the sleeping figure. He gently tapped the figured shoulder that was peeking out from the bedsheets. 

[Grandma, breakfast] Rocco whispered out to the figure. The figure stirred in bed for a second before pushing the covers away to reveal her face. The tiered gazelle's white hair was a mess from restless night sleep and dark bags hung under her eyes. Rocco grabbed her glasses and offered them to her. She took them and put them on, smiling at Rocco as she could now see him.   
[Miho, you didn’t have to do this for me.] Her hoarse voice escaped her mouth, barely loud enough for Rocco to hear it. She moved in her bed and reached for the eggs, returning to a more upright position in bed as she ate. 

[I felt bad about you having to work all the time. I figured it was the least I could do for you.]

She smiled at the thought of her grandson doing to show his gratitude for her, even if it was as small as making breakfast for her.

The two sat in a comfortable silence for a bit as she finished her breakfast and downed the glass of milk. Once she finished she turned back to face Rocco who was fiddling with a corner of the floral bed sheet.

[Rocco, what are your plans for today?] Rocco looked back at his grandmother, her sickly sweet smile flashing back at him. 

[I don’t know abuela. I’ll probably go into town for groceries the fridge is low on food.] He knew what his grandmother was trying to get at and prepared himself for the inevitable response. 

[Mijo, you need to go out and look for a job. I can’t support the two of us by myself. I’m getting old you know.]

And there it was, the same thing she had been telling him since he moved into her basement around 7 months ago. He knew she was just looking out for him and eventually he would have to find a job. After all, his grandmother couldn’t provide for them both. It's not like he didn’t try, though. He had gone on countless interviews, given out thousands of resumes, and even have gotten a few minimum wage jobs. But they almost all ended the same way, he would screw up on the job by sneaking a drink in or endangering fellow employes and he would be fired. The record of how long he managed to maintain a job was 1 month and 13 days. He had gotten fired after he had managed to set the fire from the burners on overdrive and almost caused a huge fire in the kitchen. Still, he looked but he was sure that he was blacklisted now or something. It had been 5 1/2 weeks since anyone even called him back about a job and he had begun to despair. 

He sighed and replied to his grandmother, [I know abuelita, I know.] He stood up from sitting on the edge of the bed and began walking towards the door. He had work to do, jobs to hunt for, groceries to find. He was brought out of his planning by his grandmother’s voice, still as sickly sweet as ever. 

[You know if you are hard on money I can just call up Briane and Joshua. They are your parents and I’m sure they would be happy to....]

[NO!] Rocco was surprised by his outburst and quickly avoided the gaze of his grandmother still sitting up in bed. He repeated again, quieter now, his voice barely a whisper. He would rather die than have to call his parents for money. He couldn’t take any more of their speeches on how much of a disappointment he was. As he walked out of the room and made his way to the garage where his beat-up car sat he thought back on his small outburst in the bedroom. He knew that his grandmother was just trying to be polite, hell she probably didn’t even realize how much of a bitch her daughter grew up to be. His grandmother felt like the only family that he could turn to and he couldn’t risk losing her because of a disagreement. He would have to remind himself to apologize to her when he got back but for now, he had some errands to run and a bar to visit.


	8. Up on the Bar Counter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs: Overkill by Men at Work; Another Story by The Head and The Heart  
> change the songs when you see ^^^^^^^^^^  
> Heads up: Alcohol and vomiting in this chapter

Leon and Coral arrived at the bar at 8:25 in the afternoon. Emily had insisted on not taking the van with them and instead had left a bit earlier on her black motorcycle. Leon was wearing a plain light green t-shirt with a small dragon emblem at the top left corner. Coral was also dressed lightly, wearing a striped shirt with pastel colors and a grey skirt. As for Emily, she had left the house with her usual attire; a black leather jacket and black jeans with black combat boots. Leon and Coral had decided to head to a small bar on the edge of town. The name of the bar was “The Wolf and The Moon” and was supposed to be a very small and 80’s themed, a small bar with low foot traffic. Leon pulled into the small parking lot, a neon sign flashing above the bar illuminating the hood of the car. He put the car into park and looked over to Coral who was stone-faced. Unfastening his seat belt he opened the door snapping Coral back into reality. She followed suit and met Leon outside of the car, Leon locking it afterward. The two made their way to the wooden doors, the light of the bar streaming out into the night. The doors swung open, cool air blowing into both of their faces as they made their way to the bar.  
The bar was relatively empty save for a few stray souls sitting in the booths that lined the walls. It stretched down a relatively narrow path before opening up into a larger room which held a pool table and a small section of old arcade cabinets. A neon jukebox stood a few feet away from the door and old records lined the walls. Dim orange lights illuminated the polished wooden floor. The actual counter of the bar started a fourth of the way down the path and went until it hit the “game room.” Various types of alcohol lined the shelves behind the bar, all light up by small lights the lay on the edges of the shelves like fairy lights. 

It seemed that Emily had beaten them there was she was currently sitting at the counter with a glass of water in her hand. She didn’t acknowledge Leon as he made his way to the seat next to her. Coral sat next to Leon as to not be near Emily. It was then that Emily decided to acknowledge the group’s presence with a simple grunt serving as a hello. Leon gave a small nod as a response and turned his attention to behind the counter. The bartender was nowhere to be seen, although a few small crashes and bottles clinking together could be heard from somewhere behind the counter. As Leon waited for the bartender (wherever they were) to return he reflected on the current situation between Emily and Coral. It pained him to no end to see the two in such pain (well it was more Emily in pain, Coral was the one administering the pain) and he wanted nothing more than to somehow get the two to a point where they could at least be civil with each other. Leon was always one to try and appeal to everyone but this time he felt like he had bitten off more than he could chew. He hadn’t even been in a relationship, hell he hadn’t even been a person until 4 months ago. He let out a small stressed sigh as he heard footsteps approaching from behind the counter. 

Leon looked up to see a figure now smiling at him from behind the counter. The person was a wolf with grey fur, short purple hair and a bite taken out of his ear. The most defining feature, however, was the red scar above the left eye that consisted of claw marks. Where it not for the bright smile on the wolf’s face Leon would have chalked him up to some kind of punk gang member that had gotten into one too many fights. He carried with him a laid back aura, one that put Leon’s restless mind at ease for a bit. His outfit looked like regular clothes and not some kind of uniform that he was expecting to see. He wore a pair of black jeans and a garnet colored jacket that was open to reveal a graphic tee-shirt beneath it. The only thing that identified him as ‘on the job’ was a small bronze name tag that read “E.Wolf” in bold black letters.

“Welcome to ‘The Wolf and the Moon!’ What can I get you, folks?” Leon was brought out of his analysis of the bartender by the simple prompt. He had been so caught up in his mind that he had forgotten that the main reason that they had come here was to relax and enjoy a job well done. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and smiled back at the bartender. 

“Umm do you guys have any kind of specialty drinks available?” The waiter ducked under the counter for a second before popping back up with a couple of menus in his hands. He passed them out to the group before saying “I’ll let you guys look over the drinks while I go help some other customers. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” And with that, he left the group and made his way over to the stray people in the corner booths. 

Leon turned to the menu that lay on the counter top in front of him. He picked it up and flipped through the pages to see if there were any elaborate or cool looking drinks. For him it wasn’t about how the drink tasted, he was fine with a light beer but he figured that he might as well drink a specialty drink while here. He finally settled on a dark blue type drink called “The Blue Moon” and set the menu down. After surveying the bar for a second he noticed that Emily had gone off towards the arcade cabinets and Coral was nowhere to be seen. As for the bartender he was off at one of the corner booths in a heated conversation with one of the patrons. Leon stood up from his bar stool and made his way over to Emily. She was currently in the middle of a game of Galaga so he waited until she had beaten the level before he tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention. 

“Hey, do you know where Coral went off to?” 

“I think she went to the bathroom.” 

“Oh ok, thanks.” They stood in silence for a bit as the sounds of pixelated space ships could be heard along with tiny laser sounds. 

“How are you holding up?” Leon finally broke the silence as Emily inserted another quarter into the machine after losing all her lives. 

“Honestly, it's too early to tell. So far Coral hasn’t said or done anything to make me upset but I’m still worried that she’ll try something to make me upset.” 

“Just try not to let her get to you. Try and ignore her and maybe she’ll stop and realize how childish she is being.” Leon hoped that this was the case, he couldn’t take the suffocating tension that appeared whenever Emily and Coral were in the same room. 

“Hey, did you order a drink yet?” Leon was quick to change the subject off of Coral. 

“Hmm? Oh yes, I was going to get a “Burning Orchard” but the bartender was busy with someone else.”

“Do you want me to put in the drink order for you while you play?” Emily finally looked up from the game and gave Leon a small smile. 

“Yes, I think I would like that a lot.” She turned her head back to the arcade cabinet and continued sharply moving the joystick around and mashing the small monochromatic buttons. Leon took that as his leave and started to walk back to the bar counter.

“Hey, Leon.” Leon was caught off guard by Coral’s voice lightly ringing out. He turned around to see her looking at him. 

“Thanks, you know, for everything.” Leon smiled brightly at her which made Emily feel a bit embarrassed as she looked back at the game to hide her embarrassing blush. Leon walked back to the counter, a smile still plastered on his face. He slid back into his stool as Coral reappeared from a smaller hallway that was connected to the game room. Leon assumed that that was where the bathrooms were. He fiddled with his thumbs and the corners of the menu as he waited for the bartender to return. Coral was busy absentmindedly scrolling through something on her phone. Her face held a blank expression, one that Leon had learned meant that she was either thinking about something or was conflicted on a matter. He decided not to press her on it, after all, if she wanted to talk about it he would be there for her. So he continued to stare forward at the rows and rows of liquor in the wooden shelves behind the counter, waiting for the bartender to return. 

After about 3 minutes of waiting the door to the bar swung open and a blonde haired gazelle stumbled into the bar. Everyone brought their heads up to see who had entered, then focused back on whatever they had been doing beforehand. The gazelle made his way over to the bar counter, sitting two stools away from Leon. Leon looked over to the booth where the bartender was to see him ending the conversation he was having with the patron and making his way back over to the bar. The bartender made his way behind the counter and walked up to the gazelle. 

“Hello Rocco, how have you been today?” The bartender greeted the gazelle who was named Rocco with a smile. Rocco faced the bartender and grimaced. 

“Not that good of a day huh.” Rocco simply nodded as a response. The bartender sighed and set to work mixing and pouring an almost neon green colored drink. Once he had finished he placed the glass down in front of Rocco who simply looked up at the bartender inquisitively.

“Green Spring on the house for you. You always order it when you’ve had a bad day. It's the least I can do for one of my most valued customers.” Rocco finally revealed a small smile before taking a sip of the alcoholic concoction. 

Pleased with the fact that Rocco was drinking, the bartender finally made his way back over to Leon and Coral. He placed his palms on the countertop in front of the two.

“You guys know what you’re going to order?” 

“Ah, yes. Can I get a Blue Moon and a Burning Orchard? And Coral, do you want anything?” Coral looked over to Leon then to the bartender before responding.

“Can I get a Heartbreak Ridge too please?” Leon internally cringed. He could already see how Coral could use the name of the drink against Emily. He would just have to hope that Emily had a good counter for when that happened. 

“One Blue Moon, one Burning Orchard, and one Heartbreak Ridge coming right up!” And like that the bartender was off again, gathering various bottles and glasses before mixing and swirling various colored liquids together. Leon took the time to get Emily quickly so that she could grab her drink. She had transferred over to an Aliens pinball machine and Leon told her that her drink was being made, to which she nodded and expressed a quick thanks. Leon made his way back to the stool he was sitting in, the feeling on the eyes from the various customers in the booths boring into the back of his head. As he sat back down the bartender placed a dark blue drink in front of him and poured another pinkish drink from a stainless steel container into a glass and lightly slid it over to Coral. Leon picked up his drink and held it to his nose as he took a whiff of the concoction. He noted it smelled faintly of black and blueberries as he took a small sip of the drink. It tasted exactly how it smelled like. He took a slightly larger swig of the drink before setting it back down on the counter.

Leon looked to his right to see Coral doing the same, placing the drink on a small napkin. Emily had begun to walk over to the bar counter and took her seat next to Leon. The two women ignored the presence of each other as far as Leon could tell and things seemed to be going well aside from the lack of interactions. The group had fallen into a semi-comfortable silence as they sipped their drinks, the cold hard liquor smoothy going down. But it didn’t take a genius to tell that there was some serious tension in the group. Leon slipped out his phone while no one was looking and sent a quick text over to Lex. 

Lex: Hey what exactly do at a bar to get people to stop thinking.

He put his phone on his lap and looked around the room as he waited for a reply. Some of the patrons had left into the night since they arrived, others had just wandered in. Leon thought to himself about how they all looked so lost, sitting in the booths and ordering drink after drink. No one knew their troubles and no one cared, they all had their own to worry about. It was a sad little community when you thought about it. Each had their own unique quirks and appearances that gave a hint into the story they told; a man in a leather bikers jacket repeatedly looking at a key in his palm, a woman in her mid-thirties slowly scrolling through pictures on her phone, a police officer with his hat and badge placed on the table surrounded by empty bottles of cheap beer. 

Leon was brought out of his surveying by a light buzz from his phone. He peered down to see that Leon had gotten back to him. He scanned his fingerprint and unlocked his phone, scrolling to conversation tab with ‘Leon’ on it.

Lex: I don’t know. They usually play pool or something like that. Drinking contests, talking, I don’t know. Why are you asking? 

Leon: Well I think I underprepared for this. I have no idea how to get things started. Just hoping that you could maybe help me out with that. 

Lex: I would help you if I were either there or had any knowledge on the subject matter. 

Leon: It's ok. Thanks for the help anyways.

Leon slipped his phone back into his pocket as he felt something hit his leg. He looked up to see Emily staring at him, her eyes filled with a mixture of anger, fear, and sadness. Leon didn’t need to even talk to her to realize what was going on. Coral had moved over a seat away from Emily and was sitting next to and was currently in a fervorous discussion with the gazelle named Rocco. Now, this wouldn’t have been a problem were it not for the way she was acting. Even without hearing the conversation one could be able to see her intent. 

She was resting her head being propped up on her hand. Her other hand was busy swirling her drink in slow, long circles. She was directing her full attention to Rocco’s eyes, staring deep into them while putting on her best seductive face. Even the bartender knew what was happening, his right eyebrow raised at the sigh as he made his way over to Leon. He leaned down and whispered in his ear.

“May want to tell her to leave that one alone. That's a rabbit hole of a story.” The bartender stood back up and went back to work cleaning glasses in a soppy sink, the occasional small bubble floating up and popping halfway into the air. Leon and Emily looked at each other, their faces with the same concerned expression. Leon couldn’t control Coral nor did he want to, but the fact that Emily was essentially next to her while she did it combined with the bartender's rumors concerned him to the point of wanting to do something. Yet as much as his head was screaming at him to act he just couldn’t bring himself to act. 

His heart deflated and his tail dropped down to the ground as opposed to wrapped around the bar stool like he usually did. Emily looked at him with a questioning gaze and Leon responded with a small and slow shake of his head. Emily’s face fell and her ears dropped. The air in the bar suddenly felt colder. The mood felt somber and the jukebox fell silent, the sound of water running in the sink and the mutters of Coral’s conversation being the only thing heard in the bar. 

Leon dug into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, digging into the largest fold and pulling out 45 quesillos. He placed them down on the counter and told the bartender to keep the change. He walked over to Coral and told her that they were leaving and taking the car (he hadn’t had enough alcohol to be intoxicated enough to not drive). Coral just shrugged his hand off her should and muttered a simple “thanks for the heads up.” She made no further acknowledgment of Leon or Emily and turned back to face Rocco.  
Leon turned back to face Emily who was now waiting by the door, wanting to get out as soon as possible to prevent any further heartbreak. Leon started walking towards the door but was stopped halfway to the door by the bartender's hand on his shoulder. He turned to face him to see the bartender's usual friendly service smile replaced with a knowing look. 

“I’ll make sure nothing gets out of hand for you.” The bartender quietly told Leon. Leon gave him a weak smile in return.

“Thanks, I’d appreciate that.” 

And with that the bartender let go of his shoulder, prompting Leon to continue making his way over to Emily at the door. Leon thought back about his observations of the patrons at the bar, each with their own story to tell. 

‘I guess we actually do have our own somber story to tell.’ He thought as he made his way out of the door, the warm tropical air surrounding the two of them as they made their way back to the car. ‘Maybe we aren’t as different as I thought.’

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  
Leon finally drove the car back into the driveway of the house and into the small garage that connected to the house. The lights were still on and Leon could see the figure of Lex in his room, hard at work on his desk. Once he had parked the car in the garage he shut the car off and just sat in the car for a while, thoughts filling his head and making it restless. Emily also stayed still, eyes glinting with the beginning of tears, yet she promised herself she would not let them fall. 

The two sat in silence for a while, the sounds of frogs and crickets penetrating the garage door and providing the only sounds. Eventually, Leon opened the car door and stepped out into the musty garage. A similar sound emanates from the other side of the car, signaling that Emily had done the shame. Leon sighed, both stressed and upset about how the day had turned out and made his way to the door that lead into the house. He slipped his shoes off after he entered inside and made his way into the kitchen. The door to the garage closed and Emily appeared in the doorway, head tilted down and staring at the ground. She shuffled into the living room and the sat down on the fabric couch, the sound of the television springing to life following soon after that. 

Leon walked over to the fridge and dug through the shelves to pull out two cokes in glass bottles. He made his way over into the living room and sat next to Emily who was flipping through the channels on the television. She eventually just decided to switch the tv to av as the console in the corner of the room whirred and clicked as the company's logo appeared on the screen. Leon offered her one of the cokes he had brought over with him, to which Emily thanked him and took the bottle. The two cracked their cokes open at the same time, a fizz echoing through the living room. 

Leon picked up a controller as Emily scrolled through his game library, eventually setting on playing Resident Evil 5. It wasn’t the best game in the series but it was multiplayer and sometimes you just need to relax with a friend. Emily chose to start a new game as Leon took a sip of his drink. Leon reminisced on the night as the opening cutscene started. The day had been filled with highs and lows, sadness and heartbreak, friendship and comfort, and even though this wasn’t how Leon thought this night would go, he was glad to be there for Emily. 

As the two played the game, blasting zombies in the head and making fun of the games flaws, neither noticed the dark figure watching them from the staircase. Lex watched the pair as they playfully shoved each other to get the other player to mess up and getting in a heated discussion about which Resident Evil game was the best. He couldn’t help but let the shadow of a smile creep onto his stony facade. Even though he didn’t approve of Leon and his choices in co-workers, but as he watched the two play along with each other he couldn’t help but feel as if maybe he was wrong about his predetermined opinions on the girls. 

‘Maybe everything will turn out well after all.’ Lex thought as he slunk back upstairs to his room, the light from the door becoming nothing more than a sliver of yellow under the door as he closed it.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Originally the plan had been to make Emily feel bad by talking to a random guy at the bar. She wanted to tear her down for how much she hurt her by lying to her about just about everything. Yet as she sat in the bar talking nothing but sweetly fake stories of an ordinary life that she never had she found herself missing the other girl's presence. The guy that she was talking to had barely said a work aside from one-word responses to questions to any question she threw at him. It was infuriating, to say the least.  
Coral took another shot of bourbon and slammed the glass back on the table. It stung going down but Coral could already feel herself loosening up and feeling the crooked smile come back to her face. She was currently on her sixth shot of bourbon and before that she had drunk two Heartbreak ridges, not including the one she had begun with when Leon and Emily had been there. 

“Sooooo,” Coral began, stifling a burp before continuing, “What do you do for a living.” 

Rocco just took another drink of his light beer that he had been sipping on for the evening. Once he finally finished he simply said “nothing” without even looking towards Coral.  
Coral could feel her blood begin to boil. This man would not give into her. Surely seducing someone in a bar wasn’t supposed to be this hard. She had been at this for about an hour and a half by now! This person would succumb to her will by the time this night was done, that much was a promise.

Rocco began to stand up, signaling the bartender to come over. Coral was going to lose him now if she didn’t act quickly. Without thinking she got up and walked behind him. She was a fair bit shorter than him, yet she was determined. She seductively traced a finger from his shoulder down his back. She perched on her tiptoes to reach his ears and whispered in a low voice into them.

“You know, drinking and talking isn’t the only way we can get know each other better.” A devilish smile plastered her face as she brought her hand back up to place it on his shoulder. Suddenly he grabbed her hand and spun her around, reeling her in closer to him. Their faces were now only a few inches away and Coral could feel Rocco’s hot breath blowing into her face.

He leaned in to close the gap between them and Coral prepared herself for the kiss that was coming. Only it never came. Instead, he brought his head to her should so that his mouth and her ear were lined up. He then paused for a moment, letting the sexual tension between them to becoming suffocatingly thick. Then and only then he opened his mouth, letting his hot breath tickle her neck. He finally spoke in a hushed tone so that only she could hear him. 

“You know, I don’t like being as a pawn so someone can make her ex that she is pining over jealous. Just saying.” 

And with that, he brought her back up so that they were now standing up straight. He pretended to dust her shoulders off before turning around, telling the bartender he would pay his tab tomorrow, and making his way out the door, leaving Coral behind. 

Coral just stood still in shock, her mind reeling from what just happened. How had he known? Was she just that easy to read? Was he just a god at reading people? Who was he? Were Leon and Lex able to read her like that? 

Coral slowly lowered herself back into the bar stool that she had previously been sitting in. She let out a loud sigh and rested her hands on the counter, reaching for one of the shot glasses she had drunk from. She turned it over in her hand, smoothing her paw over the concave bottom. A single drop of liquor fell onto the counter, the droplet shattering into tiny shards of alcohol upon impact. 

Time seemed to pass in the blink of an eye as she continued to inspect the shot glass. An occasional new drink accompanied her as she turned the glass over and over and over, watching every inch of it like it was an ancient artifact, a testament to her fall. Many came and many left yet Coral never cared and only heard the swinging of the bar door and the light breeze that entered as a sign of a new entry or exit. It was as if time had stopped for her, the world fading away into nothingness. 

It was a small tap on her shoulder that brought her back to reality. She tilted her head to see the bartender with his hand outstretched, a small slip of paper in his hand. If Coral hadn’t been extremely intoxicated she would have been upset at someone offering their number to her, a vain attempt at trying to score a one night stand. Yet she couldn’t bring herself to care as she just her head just dipped as she tried to support herself up, exhaustion trying to overtake her. 

“Judging by how much you’ve had to drink I don’t think you should drive or walk home. Take this, its a number for a cab.”

“Why would you care?” Coral slurred out, reaching for a half-empty beer bottle on the counter. She brought the bottle to her lips but the bartender reached out and put his palm over the top of the lip of the bottle before she could take a sip. He slowly pushed the bottle back towards the counter until it rested on top of it. 

“It seems like you have someone that wants to see you get home safely.” 

It was then that she looked behind him and saw posted on the wall the times that the bar closes. Posted next to the word Saturday was the time “11:30.” Coral shifted he head to face the clock on the wall above the shelves of liquor and squinted to read the time. Even in her intoxicated state, she could make out the sight of the clock telling her that it was in fact 11:45.

‘That would explain the sudden lack of people here.’ Coral thought as she stretched her now cramped limbs. She let out a small mix of a meep and a groan as she stood up from the bar stool. She began to stumble to the door, only now realizing just how much she had drunk as she tripped over her feet.  
After what felt like forever she managed to reach the door, leaning against the side of it to steady herself from the spinning world. She expected the bartender to rush her outside so he could finish cleaning up but he seemed to have run off to some other section of the bar doing god knows what. Not that Coral cared, she had a long way to walk home. She stumbled into the warm air, immediately being greeted by the squawk of an unknown bird and the sound small frightened animals rustling back in the shrubs. A gecko darted past Coral and climbed the wall in an instant, disappearing into the shadows of the night. The sound of far away cars rushing on now empty roads echoed throughout the night as Coral walked over to the sidewalk.

Coral felt her stomach lurch and her mouth was suddenly filled with an acidic taste as she bet over and emptied her belly on the nearby grass. After she finished she wiped her mouth with her arm and tripped her way over to a bench under a streetlight. Coral collapsed onto the bench, he head laying back and staring at the sky. Small bugs played under the streetlight, darting close enough to the light bulb to almost burn their wings then darting back away at the last second, flying in lazy circles before repeating the cycle.  
Coral shuffled her hand into her pocket and pulled out the slip of paper the bartender had given her. She turned it over in her hands, examining the paper in scrutinous detail. She didn’t need help, she could do all of this herself. Coral Lanchester was not the girl to take people’s help, especially not a stranger’s help. Yet as the night moved along and more and more light seemed to dim out of existence and the possibility of walking home became less and less plausible, she found herself left with two choices. One: she could just fall asleep on the bench like a homeless bum and stay there for the night, hoping nothing bad happens to her as she rested. Or she could simply call the cab. She decided to go with the later. Coral sighed as she once again fished into her pocket and pulled out her phone. Her fingers drunkenly fumbled with the buttons, finally managing to put the right ones in. After a short conversation with the cab company, she had been told that a cab would be there in about 10 to 15 minutes. Coral hung up the phone after saying thanks and let her arm slump back onto her lap, phone slipping out onto the bench next to her. She looked up into the night sky and admired the stars, barely visible through a mass of small clouds and smoke from the city. 

‘Maybe, just maybe, somethings will get better between me and Emily,” Emily thought while watching bugs dance around each other in a mesmerizing routine

‘Maybe, but not today.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This marks the end of the main prologue. We start the first major story line next week so be sure to tune in!


	9. Visit the Shadows

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, Ender here. Just a heads up, this chapter is essentially one big kidnapping trigger warning. We're about to enter the darkest part of Two Halves and I just wanted to give you all a heads up. And that doesn't mean that this is a dark story, just particular section. Also, no music for this chapter, I both didn't find a fitting song and didn't want to put a song in here.

Selina woke to the sound of a bang and a crash that rang out from somewhere within her apartment. She figured it was her room mated tripping over one of the many cables that lay strewn across the floor in the living room. With a groan and a crack of her back from a stretch, she made her way out of bed and opened her bedroom door. She made her way into the living room and saw that she had been right in her previous assumption. Her roommate was trying to recover all of the fallen food that had dropped when she fell and a cable was pulled out of its usual spot in the wall plug. Selina sighed and moved to go help out her roommate.   
Her roommate was a bit startled to suddenly see Selina’s outline stooped down from the corner of her eye. Selina’s hair was noticeably disheveled and her usually well-combed ears had hair twisted and matted in several places. Of course, Teressa looked no better. Her red eyes looked particularly bloodshot and her clothes were wrinkled. 

The two finally managed to clean up the food on the ground and Selina went on her way to complete her morning ritual. After eating a hearty breakfast filled with the remaining half slice of bread and a bit of cereal without any milk, Selina made her way into the bathroom to make herself at the very least presentable. 

She stood there looking at herself in the mirror. Her eyes had large sleep deprived circles under them and her hair was sticking out at all angles. She had short hair, shaved down, and long on the other, yet her long hair still managed to cross over to the other side of her head. She pulled out a brush and went to work trying to detangle her untamed hair. After about ten minutes of tugging and pulling in a fight against her hair, she finally managed to get it so that it was somewhat straight. She did the same with her long and floppy ears. 

Being a rabbit seemed to have it’s upsides sometimes, although when it came to hair and fur styling it mainly just boiled down to having very soft fur at the expense of it being harder to comb. At least she wasn’t a bat like her roommate, they somehow had both rougher fur and it was harder to tame. 

Speaking of her roommate, she was waiting outside the door for Selina to exit so she could also fight the losing battle that was hair styling. Although Teressa was smarter and just kept her hair shorter and not half long half short. Teressa opted to just have a pixie cut as it was easier to comb.   
Selina finally exited the bathroom and made her way to her room to change. She pulled out a random graphic tee shirt and a pair of jeans, both of which she slipped on after she got out of her pajamas. After applying some light makeup she made her way to the living room, resting on the couch as she waited for her roommate to finish getting ready. The apartment they lived in was quite small, only containing a tiny kitchen that combined with the living room and two bedrooms. If only the to of them had better jobs or anything, then they could get out of this dead-end place and…

Selina sighed in frustration. She didn’t need or want to be reminded of her low paying job and their financial troubles, it always leads to her having a rough start to the day. And so she just waited while thinking of menial things like ‘what am I going to pick up at the grocery store’ or ‘I wonder what time the club opens up today’ or ‘I wonder if there even is a club near us.’ It wasn’t until around 25 minutes passed that she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned her head to see Teressa giving her the ‘let's get going already’ look. With a grunt, Selina stood up from her resting spot on the couch and made her way over to the creaky door that leads out to the main hallway.

Yet as Teressa walked briskly outside Selina couldn’t help but turn around and look back into her apartment. She felt a cold breeze scratch against her fur, making it stand up on end. The place she called home no longer felt safe as if a malevolent presence had sucked all warmth out of the small dwelling. She felt unease dig into the back of her head making her blood run cold.

She finally managed to pry her head away from the apartment and made her way out the door, meeting up with Teressa who asked her what took so long. While Selina made up an excuse about not being able to find her wallet, neither her nor Teressa managed to see the smoky black figure standing in the doorway of their apartment, watching the two talk and make their way down the stairs, staring on with a devilish gaze.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

As walked back outside she was greeted the wind harshly blowing into her face. The duo had gone to hang out at the local theater and were just coming outside after staying seated for almost 2 hours and a half. As grateful as the two were to now be able to stretch their legs they were also concerned about the clouds above. When they had entered the theater there had been minimal clouds, an almost perfect sunny day in Guantano. Yet now that they were back outside, the sky had become angry, gray clouds forming and threatening to pour rain at a moments notice.   
The two walked briskly down the streets, making idle chit chat about the movie they had just seen. As they talked, Selina noticed that there seemed to be a severe lack of people walking on the sidewalks and cars on the roads. This part of town wasn’t densely populated or very popular, yet there would always at least be a small crowd of people rushing from one place to another. It sewed an uneasy feeling in Selina that no matter how hard she tried to shrug it off it kept coming back to her, gnawing at the back of her mind. 

It seemed like Teressa was fine, though. She was her usual bubbly self, making comments at whatever shops they passed or mocking a driver that was going a bit too fast. None of the unease from Selina seemed to seep onto her, in fact, she seemed more energetic than ever. More than once she had suggested to Selina that they try random restaurants that they passed. How she could not feel at least a bit concerned about at least the weather, Selina couldn’t fathom. Selina just hoped that Teressa would get tired out from her newfound energy and would be ready to go back to the apartment.

Yet as Teressa continued to bounce around the sidewalk and the skies continued to darken, Selina saw that there wouldn’t be an end to this new found energy, at least, not a timely end. The cars seemed to disappear from the road, not a single one had drove past them in the last 5 minutes. Every shop they passed by seemed to be closed, lights off and blinds drawn. The spare people that dotted the sidewalks had all but disappeared, leaving a cold emptiness in the warm tropical air. Selina gripped herself tighter as a cold breeze brushed past her face and for a moment she could have sworn she saw her breath. 

Selina almost rammed into Teressa, so deep in her thought that she didn’t notice that the other woman had stopped walking. After regaining her senses, she peered over to see what Teressa was looking at. She peered over her shoulder and followed Teressa’s gaze. Her gaze fell upon the entrance to an alleyway, the buildings casting a dark shadow over the area. Selina scoffed, she didn’t know why Teressa would stop dead in her tracks to just look at an alleyway. Hell, this was Diochi, this city was filled with dark alleyways and this one wasn’t anything special by the looks of it. 

Selina tugged on her friend’s arm to try and snap her back to reality, yet Teressa stayed still. The rabbit let out a frustrated grunt as she tugged harder still, managing to make Teressa sway a bit but still not move. She was like stone, stuck in a trance, fixated on this one dark alley. Selina looked back over at the alley to see if anything had changed or lead to a reason on why Teressa was so transfixed on this one unassuming place. Yet the alleyway remained dark and still, nothing changing except for a gecko that darted across the sidewalk next to it.

Selina looked back up at the clouds, noticing that they had gotten darker still. If they didn’t get inside soon, they would be caught in what looked to be a monster of a storm. Selina moved to grab Teressa’s hand to pull her away, yet when she swiped her hand out to grab her, she caught nothing but air. Selina frantically turned around to notice that Teressa was no longer behind her. The rabbit looked around, turning this way and that to find her friend. It didn’t take long for her eyes to find her though.

Teressa was standing in front of the entrance to the alleyway, her eyes seemingly glazed over, just staring into the dark. How she had crossed the street without Selina noticing was beyond her and was the least of her questions. She ran across the street to catch up with her friend, bits of asphalt being kicked up as she rushed to her side. As Selina ran across the street she noticed Teressa starting to walk forward into the alleyway. By the time she reached the opposite sidewalk, Teressa had disappeared into the dark shadows that covered the alleyway.

She paused at the entrance to the alleyway. Her mind was screaming at her to just walk away, trying to reassure her that Teressa would be fine. She was a fully grown adult and could take care of herself. Yet despite her mind trying to tell her to just go home Teressa found herself unable to leave. Maybe it was the determination to find her friend, maybe it was the desire to find out answers about Teressa’s strange behavior, or maybe it was the odd enticement of the alleyway that Selina now found pulling her closer to the entrance. Whatever the case, she found herself beginning to walk forward into the alleyway as the first drops of rain began to fall. 

She had become enveloped in the darkness as the rain began to paint the pavement. She couldn’t stop herself now, it felt like her legs were moving of their own accord. The alleyway was so dark that she couldn’t see a step in front of her despite it only being around mid-day. A cold breeze blew past her, although it didn’t feel like it was from the weather. In fact, this breeze felt more sinister, like an omen of horrors to come. Yet she continued on, the alleyway feeling like it was becoming more and more cramped. Selina couldn’t put her paw on it, but this feeling felt familiar, the feeling of being watched, of darkness. 

At last, her feet seemed to stop moving what Selina presumed to be the middle of the alleyway although it was too dark to tell. The same sinister breeze blew past her, this time with more of a chill. She felt goosebumps form on her arms as the breeze went by and she instinctively pulled her arms to her chest in an attempt to warm up. The alleyway fell incredibly still, no sounds coming from it except for the howl of the wind. Selina pulled her arms closer to herself, trying in vain to comfort herself. Her mind was screaming at her to run, to flee while she still had the chance. Yet no matter how much Selina tried to will herself to run away, her legs stayed locked, ensuring that there was no escape. It was like they had turned to stone, becoming a petrified statue of what happens when you venture into the dark corners of a city. 

As Selina tried to get herself to move again, the shadows seemed to form hands, reaching out and wrapping around her. She froze in horror as she felt something snake around her arms. Peering down she saw dark wispy shapes lightly wrapping around her arms, little bits of dark smoke evaporating off of the translucent tentacles. Selina opened her mouth to scream but found herself unable to do so. It was like all the air had been sucked out of her leaving a shell of a person. 

The smoke suddenly tightened around her arms, reaffirming Selina that this was not a nightmare and was real life. They yanked her back with the force so great she felt like her arms were going to fall off. And at that moment she finally found a single bit of air left in her lungs, just enough to let out a single blood-curdling scream. Yet the scream fell on deaf ears, the sound of the city and the rain swallowing it up as Selina was dragged into the dark.


	10. Working Overtime

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song: Pain by The War on Drugs

“On the twenty-first of May, two girls went missing from the small city of Diochi. They were reported missing after neither of the two turned up to work for a week. The police were sent to their house to see if they were of only to find the small two bedroom apartment empty with everything still in it. It was now almost been two weeks since they were last heard from at the theater on the corner of Bukik road. This is the most recent case in a string of disappearances happening in multiple cities. In the last three months, the number of missing people reports has increased by almost 10%. What is happening with this recent string of disappearances and should you be worried? More on this topic when we come back from the break.”

The news set faded out and was replaced with an advertisement for some kind of salad dressing. Lex refocused on the work he had laid out in front of him. Various report files, police reports, maps, and charts lined the desk in unorganized piles. Lex pulled a map of Guantano out from one of the piles and placed it down in front of him. Gingerly picking up a pencil he began to mark certain locations on the map and draw lines connecting them to each other. Yet after trying multiple times to see some kind of pattern there still only a map, not with any clue, just a bunch of marks from previously erased lines and bits of eraser.  
Lex sighed and pushed the swivel chair he had been sitting in away from the desk, allowing the chair to spin a bit before stopping it so he faced the television in the corner of his room. The news had gone onto some inane story about a celebrity fight that had happened when they happened to wear the same dress to the same party. Lex could care less about the story but wanted some kind of white noise as he thought. 

By now, it was no surprise that in the last two year Guantano had seen a tremendous increase in crime. One in 15 houses were robbed, the number of police that had died in the line of duty had risen to staggering heights, new gangs were popping up left and right and previously existing ones were gaining more power on the streets. The reason for this sudden increase in crime remained a mystery and baffled police and the GCR alike.  
Lex was also stumped by the crime wave and was trying to find any evidence he could about why it was happening. Yet as theories were debunked and resources became scarce, Lex was becoming despondent and was beginning to think that maybe this was all just chance. Yet something nagged at the back of his mind, a feeling that this wasn’t just random chance and was, in fact, part of something more sinister. It was only a hunch, yet it burned like a flame in the back of his mind and nothing would quench it other than evidence. 

Lex sighed and spun his chair around again so that he was facing the door to his room. He had been working for roughly six hours straight now and the sun had set long ago. By this time Leon and Emily would either be in their rooms sleeping or downstairs playing something or going for a night on the town. It pleased Lex to see Leon getting along so well with one of his co-workers and although he didn’t approve of Emily’s previous line of work he was begrudging to admit that she was a valuable asset to the team. She provided valuable support from a distance and was equally good when in close quarters combat. And although he would never admit it, Lex found himself enjoying her sarcasm from time to time. 

Lex’s stomach grumbled, bringing him out of his thoughts. He had skipped dinner with the others to try to get some more work done and he was now regretting that decision. It was now beginning to hinder his ability to work quickly as he often found himself pulled out of his thinking by the painful growl of his stomach. It was time to do something about it.

Lex grunted as he stood up from his swivel chair, his joints cracking as he quickly stretched. It always felt good to stretch after sitting at a desk for hours on end. Slowly, he made his way to the door, using his one good hand to turn the knob. As the door swung open it banged into his cast, to which Lex let out a small hiss. He was so glad that within the next few weeks he would be able to get his cast off. It was a massive hindrance to his overall productivity and annoyed him to no end. 

Lex walked into the dark hallway and made his way over to the stairs. The mixture of moonlight and street light illuminated the living room, which had recently gotten a new window installed, this time bulletproof. By the looks of it, Leon and Emily had either gone to sleep or were out doing something somewhere. The house was dark aside from a few blinking lights coming from various things like the router next to the tv or the soft glow of the microwave display. The soft pitter-patter of rain marked the beginning of a storm outside the house and provided some white noise. The house was peaceful now as compared to the usual bustle that it had during the day. It was pleasant and Lex found himself enjoying the stillness of everything.

He made his way to the kitchen, almost tripping over a jacket that Leon had left on the floor. He picked it up from the ground and flung it towards the couch, making a mental reminder to chastise Leon in the morning. Lex finally arrived in the kitchen, using the dim light from the window to guide him. Upon opening the fridge he was greeted to an almost blinding light as the fridge illuminated the section of the kitchen he was in. He rummaged around the fridge for a bit before pulling out a Tupperware with some pasta in it from three nights ago. Lex lackadaisical placed the pasta on a plate he had grabbed from a nearby cabinet into the microwave and set it for 30 seconds. A dim light illuminated the microwave as the food was warmed up, a soft hum coming from the machine as it spun.

Lex waited for the second before it rang to stop the microwave so it wouldn’t disturb anyone that may have been sleeping. He grabbed a fork from a drawer and made his way to the table, carefully using the light to not accidentally bump into it. Finally, he sat down and began to eat, the warm noodles appeasing his hunger. It was then that he noticed a small sliver of light coming from the basement. 

‘That’s odd,’ Lex thought to himself. ‘Coral should have already left for home by now.’ He slowly stood up from his chair and made his way to the door to the basement. 

‘Maybe someone just left the light on?’ Leon asked himself as he slowly started to turn the knob to the door.

\-------------------------------------------------------

Coral sat at the workbench in the middle of the basement. She had long since finished the work that she needs to do for the day, so why was she still here. Honestly, Coral herself didn’t know the answer. She had come to dread the silence of her apartment, the stillness of everything. It felt so empty even though not much had changed in it. Not even the sound of the city outside could prevent the apartment from feeling deathly quiet. Something was missing from it, something to bring the small place some more life. Something like….

Coral stopped herself mid-thought. There was no way that she would even consider that, not in a million years. Yet as she tried to get herself off the topic by looking over her notes for the day her mind kept wandering to that night in the bar. That one strange gazelle who seemed to look past Coral’s act. He was wrong, she hated Emily. Yet why was she dwelling so much on that conversation? He probably just wanted to get under her skin and found a way to do it. Coral tried to reassure herself that that was all it was, yet something kept denying it. A small voice in the back of her head constantly nagging her.

He's right.

Coral couldn’t get her mind off the subject no matter how hard she tried. No amount of looking at calculations, revising blueprints, getting ahead on work could make it go away. And that lead her to where she was now, sitting once again at the middle workbench running her hands over Emily’s plague doctors mask. She had taken it after the scuffle on the rooftop and kept it in a drawer towards the back of the basement. Truth be told, she didn’t know why she kept it. She always told herself that it was to fill her with anger upon seeing a memento about how Emily had lied to her. Yet as she sat there and ran her paw across the cold metal beak she didn’t feel anger. Instead, she felt a deep pang of sorrow deep in her heart. 

Coral was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn’t hear the soft sounds of creaking wood that signified the basement door being open. She just kept staring at the mask, tracing the once red optics. It wasn’t until she saw the outline of a figure walking down the steps that she snapped out of her trance and rushed to shove the mask away in the nearest drawer. After fumbling about for a moment she managed to quickly open a drawer and place the mask inside and slam the drawer as quickly as possible.   
Lex was surprised to see Coral so flustered as she tried to hide whatever she was looking at. She was always one to keep her cool when working, so why was she so surprised at the mere sight of Lex walking into her work station? This question only leads to more questions; Why is she still here when it’s close to midnight? Does she know what time it is? What was she doing just then? Why does none of the equipment look like its been touched in a while? 

“Evening Coral,” Lex said, deciding to maintain his business-like attitude just like he would during the day.

“Its night time Lex, the evening has long passed.”

Lex smiled at her, although he was mainly pleased with himself for being able to find the answer to one of his questions without having to explicitly probe her for an answer. 

“Is that so, I didn’t really notice the sun go down,” Lex responded with a cheeky grin. Coral knew that he was being sarcastic and although normally she would be surprised to Lex joke around right now she was just getting irritated by it. 

Lex reached the bottom of the stairs and took to walking around the room, going slowly with a strange kind of eerie elegance. Coral felt goosebumps beginning to form under her fur. It felt like she was being interrogated by Lex even though he had barely said anything. He continued to walk past each workbench, looking at whatever was laid out on the tops of them. He would occasionally stop in front of one to pick up something and inspect them, whether that be a piece of metal that she had been molding or a set of test tubes that were on their rack. 

“What are you working on?” Lex questioned her after he set a metal sphere back on the table behind her. 

“I’m working on a diversion tool for you.” At this, Lex raised his eyebrow, clearly intrigued. “I figured that you could use a helping hand if you ever find yourself in a precarious situation. I call it a Mirage”

“How does it work?” Lex asked her as he picked up a blueprint that she had drawn up for the tool. 

“Well, it's really quite simple.” Coral pushed her chair to face Lex. “Upon deployment, it creates a life-size 3D hologram of whatever I program it to display. Currently, I’m working on building the outer shell of the Mirage but I have experimented on trying to make the actual projector but I can’t find the right lenses to make the image look life-sized.”

Lex simply nodded his head and put the piece of metal back on the workbench. He then directed his attention to a large burn mark on a neighboring table. It didn’t look like it had anything to do with Coral’s current project and Lex was intrigued as to how it happened. Thankfully Coral noticed that he was looking at the burn and decided to explain its backstory. 

“Oh that. I was working on a concealable flamethrower that could be hidden under one’s wrist.” 

“Like a wrist blade?” Lex asked, his attention still on the workbench.

“Exactly. I figured it would be good for trying to get attackers to back up and give us enough space to maybe find some new cover or retreat to a more favorable position if the situation arose for it. The problem was I couldn’t find a way to provide enough fuel for it and not weigh the wearer down. While trying to do this I accidentally spilled some on the table and didn’t notice it. The next time I did a test run the flames ignited the fuel and left that mark. Thankfully I was able to grab the fire extinguisher in the corner of the room and put the fire out before it got out of hand.”  
Lex let out a small ‘hmm’ and muttered something about needing to install fire alarms in the basement before turning once again to face Coral. 

“I must say Coral, I am quite surprised how much you’ve managed to do in such a small amount of time. It's a surprise you ever got fired from your old job.” Coral couldn’t help but cringe a bit at the mention of her old job. It still wasn’t a pleasant memory for her and she wished she could go back and change some things about that day, mainly with how she acted with her boss. But there was nothing she could do about it now, it was too late and she doubted her old boss would want to see her, let alone accept an apology from her. 

Coral pushed the thought out of her mind and directed her attention towards Lex, who was now slowly making his way towards the steps that lead back upstairs. He stopped once he reached them, though, and turned back to face Coral.

“You never talk about your old job. Why is that?”

Coral was tempted to just ignore the question and pretend to get back to work. Part of Coral wanted to snap at Lex for even bringing up the topic. Yet she stopped herself before she could do either. She thought about it for a moment. She had way too much on her chest, things she never talked about with anyone. Perhaps it would feel a little good to talk about something, even if it wasn’t the thing that was causing the most emotional baggage. 

Lex just watched as Coral thought. She had gone silent for close to 30 seconds and Lex was beginning to regret asking her about the topic. He turned his attention back to the stairs and was about to climb them until he heard Coral break her silence. 

“No particular reason, just left things on a bad note when I left. I don’t like to think about my mistakes that often.”

Lex just nodded with understanding, his eyes toning down on his usual stony gaze and softening ever so slightly. I caught Coral a bit by surprise to see an emotion other than business-like respectability. 

“I understand. Talking about your faults is challenging, especially if you dwell on them. But if you keep dwelling on them their going to end up eating you from the inside out. Just know that you have people here that are willing to help you out if you ever need someone to talk to.”

He turned once again away from Coral and began to walk up the stairs again. Coral felt a bit better about things after talking about Lex, but something was still there, something that was trying to get her to speak. Before she could even register what she was saying she blurted out.

“Do you think that you could ever fix something that you’ve left on such a bad note?” 

Lex once again directed his attention to the flustered Coral, who was having a hard time trying to find out why she had asked that question. Yet when she noticed that Lex was looking at her she directed her attention towards her. She felt her cheeks heat up and a blush was fighting to creep onto her face. Still, Lex just gave a small, soft smile to Coral. Truth be told, he hadn’t been expecting Coral to speak so frantically at him and was even more surprised to see the blush that was now plastered on her face. As much of a mystery Coral was, he was beginning to put the pieces of the puzzle together. 

“You can always go back and try again. The real question is why you want to do it. If you don’t know why you want to fix things then you’re going to end up floundering about aimlessly with no real idea of what you’re doing. But if you look deep within yourself and find out why and how you’re going to go about mending things, then you’re going to be a lot more successful. But you have to know why you’re doing this and you have to be brutally honest with yourself. Find out why you’re doing it and if it is really good for you. Then you can begin to mend things.” 

And with that, Lex walked up the stairs and back into the kitchen. A moment later Coral could hear the sound of a door closing, signifying Lex had left her to herself.


	11. Shadows in the Basement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: This is going to be one of, if not the, darkest chapter of Two Halves. However, this is a very important chapter to find out what happened to Selina and Teressa. This chapter mainly focuses on kidnapping, emotional and physical abuse, and someone vomits. Also, no music. It just wouldn't fit here and I want to be respectful

Selina awoke in total darkness. She tried to move her legs to stand up but collapsed back on the ground. It felt like her whole body was on fire, excruciating pain shooting through her as she crumpled to the ground. She fell onto cold concrete, bits of rocks piercing her skin as she fell. Except, she couldn’t feel anything, in fact, it felt like she had gone totally numb aside from the jabs of pain that filled her body.

Selina felt sick to her stomach as her mind began to regain its consciousness and bits of memory came flooding back to her. The alleyway, the rain, Teressa disappearing, cold smoky tentacles, her legs frozen in place, her mind screaming at her to run yet being unable to. Selina doubled over and vomited onto the floor, the acidic taste filling her mouth as she continued to heave and vomit. It was all too much for her to bear and her mind kept filling with terrifying scenarios of what was happening. Panick seized control over her as her mind jumped from what if to what if, grizzly theories of what would happen to her now. In a way, she wished that whoever had taken her had killed her instead of whatever they were planning on doing now. 

But she wasn’t the only one here, the only one that had been taken. Teressa had gone into the alleyway before Selina and had disappeared while inside. And if Selina was alive, then there was a possibility that Teressa was alive too. For once, Selina felt a glimmer of hope. She could find Teressa, grab her, and find a way out of here. Except, where was here? Selina didn’t know and took a moment to look around the room in an effort to find some source of dim light. There was nothing, no sliver of moonlight creeping in from a crack nor a lamp or light bulb hanging above. There was simply nothing to identify where she was aside from a concrete ground and...chains?

Selina finally noticed the cool yet tight feeling on her wrists. She shook her hands around and heard the sound of metal clanking against each other. She tried to stretch her arms yet she only got halfway through before they were pulled back together by her bindings. 

So she was in some kind of chains, that much was certain, but what now? What else could she do to help her situation? She was chained to somewhere in this pitch black room and had no way of freeing herself. And even if she did, where could she run too? For all, she knew she was in a different country altogether.  
Selina could do nothing but wait. For what she was waiting for not even she knew but she had exhausted all actions and she was beginning to feel tired again. The fear in her head was still running rampant but there was a small reassuring voice that everything would be fine. Selina decided that for know she would listen to the optimistic side of her brain and curled up on the floor to sleep.

\-------------------------------------------------

When she awoke nothing had changed. The room was still dark and no light shone through it and she was still bound to somewhere. There was one upside though, the pain in her body was beginning to fade away, even if it was small at least her body didn’t feel like it was on fire. Now it was more like sharp little needles were pricking her body. She also no longer felt sick to her stomach and the urge to vomit had subsided. 

Yet something replaced it, hunger. Selina felt an insatiable hunger and a thirst that accompanied it. Assuming that she was unconscious for at least a day, it must have been days since she had last eaten. With luck, her captor might have given her water while she was unconscious so she wouldn’t die of thirst. If that was the case then Selina could assume that at least her captor wanted to keep her alive, although alive for what reason? 

Selina didn’t have time to answer that question as she heard a large clunking sound coming from somewhere. Assuming her captor would soon be walking into the room she scrambled to ready herself. If this person who had kidnapped her was going to try anything then she was sure to not go willingly. 

The door creaked open and the first beams of light emanated into the room. Selina hadn’t seen light natural or otherwise since she had been kidnapped and it took her a back to see something so bright lighting up the room even if it was dull and weak. With the light, she could now take in her surroundings. 

She was in a small room with gray concrete walls on all sides except for one. To her left, there was a cloth dividing the room into two. Directly in front of her was a small but very thick looking wooden door meant to keep something captive inside the room. Turning around to the wall she was back up against she could see iron chains nailed into the wall that kept her from running. Aside from that the room was barren aside from the now dried pool of vomit from a day ago. 

Selina brought her attention back to the door. It had stopped opening about a fourth of the way open and stayed like that. The fact that no one was coming into the room was putting Selina on edge. A shadow cast itself from the light in the doorway and Selina readied herself for a confrontation. Yet instead of a big burly man covered in tattoos with a gun strapped to his side like she had been expecting, in came a frail looking old otter. She had a knitted shawl draped over her shoulders and an orange skirt filled with small trinkets dangling off a belt. Her gray hair was unkempt and sticking out in all directions. She had a pleasant grandmotherly smile plastered on her face and was carrying a tray with what looked like a glass of some liquid and something else on it.

The otter seemed as surprised to see Selina as Selina was to see her. She rushed over to Selina and put the tray a bit away from her and directed her attention towards Selina. She studied her with sympathetic eyes, scanning Selina’s body from up to down before kneeling down and cupping Selina’s head in her hands. Selina flinched at the feeling of cold paws on her face but eventually let it happen, glad to see someone that looked like they wouldn’t hurt her. 

The otter turned Selina’s head lightly to each side as she examined her. Selina felt a bit uncomfortable with being examined so much but just chalked it up to the otter wanting to make sure she was ok. Selina’s mind began to comfort as she thought about this otter helping her out of her chains and allowing her to escape out of this hell hole. Then, once she was safe, she could inform the police and have them raid this place and find Teressa. For once in the two conscious days that she had been here, Selina began to feel her heart flutter with hope.  
She was brought out of her thoughts as she felt the cold paws retract from her face. She looked back at the otter to see if she was going to do anything and saw that they had a big grin on their face. It felt menacing for Selina and her heart began to shrink.

“It worked. It actually worked!” The otter giddily laughed and skipped over to the dividing curtain. “With all the recent failures I’ve had I would have never thought that I would have been able to get it right! Oh, that reminds me, I have one other to check.” 

The otter disappeared behind the curtain, leaving Selina at a loss for words. She was shocked to see that this sweet looking otter may just be the mastermind behind her kidnapping. And what did she mean by ‘success?’ What was so special about Selina that made the otter so giddy with glee. And who was this other person that they were checking on? Could it be Teressa? Or maybe she was already gone, a victim of whatever the otter had planned. 

Before she could ask another question to herself she heard a cheer from the other side of the room and the otter moved back to her side of the curtain, the smile now wider than before. 

“Oh Selina, this is wonderful! Two successes in a row! What luck! I guess I just needed to find the right people.” Selina tried to open her mouth and talk but nothing came out, no sound was made. She touched her throat frantically, trying to find out what was wrong with her. Nothing felt off, so why couldn’t she speak? The otter seemed to notice her struggling with her speech and knelt beside her.

“Oh Selina,” the otter purred into her ear, “there’s no use trying to speak. The drug I used is supposed to cause trouble speaking for a few days. This is completely normal.” Selina rushed back against the wall to try and escape the otter and their silky sweet voice. It sounded like honey, yet was dripping with venom and malice. It sent a shiver down Selina’s spine and chilled her blood cold. Her heart rate increased and she found herself hyperventilating. She tried to scream out but nothing came out as was expected. She was too stunned and afraid to cry although she felt them beginning to form. She shook her chains and tugged against them in a vain attempt to try and escape yet the only thing she managed to do was apply pressure to her wrists. 

“Selina, if you continue doing that I’ll have no choice but to punish you.” The otter spoke with a tone that could only be described as motherly disappointment and it made Selina sick to her stomach. It was like this person was implying that she belonged to her like they were her mother or something. Yet despite her mind telling her to rebel against her, she decided to stop to avoid whatever cruel punishment the otter had lined up for her. 

“Good girl,” The otter purred, making Selina’s stomach churn. It was beginning to feel more and more like the otter viewed her as her pet. “Now, eat up. After that, you can play for a while while I make a very important phone call, o.k.?” It felt demeaning to be spoken to like a child and Selina’s heart stung. She wished now more than ever that she could just wake up in her bed, all of this being some messed up dream. For the first time in five years, she longed to call her mom and just cry. She longed to be wrapped in a loving hug and be told that everything was going to be ok. 

Yet as the otter pushed the tray over to her and revealed a meal consisting of water and a chunky gray colored soup, Selina began to feel like she may have the chance to do that again. She would never see the outside world, never sleep in a warm bed, never get to talk to her parents again. It felt like her life was over even though she was still alive.

And so, against her will, she went to pick up the small silver spoon on the tray that lay in the light. She picked the spoon up then stopped. She must have been hallucinating because the skin on her hand didn’t look the same. It was knitted, like a woolen doll. She dropped the spoon and brought as much of her arms into the light of the doorway. The wool extended through her arms, any traces of skin gone and replaced with some kind of stitch. 

Selina brought her hands to her face and could now feel it. Soft wool stretched throughout her face and she could feel the same pattern that was on her arm also present here. She swiped the food off the tray and used it as a makeshift mirror. She brought the tray to her face and looked into it to see if maybe she was just going crazy. There was no way that something like this could happen! Someone can’t have their body changed like that! Yet as she stared in her reflection her doubts subsided and were replaced by fear.

Her once silky brown fur was replaced with patches of different colored fur of various textures. A black thread ran across her face, stitching the patches together. It looked like something straight out of a horror movie.

She let out a silent scream upon seeing studying her reflection and dropped the tray to the floor. It crashed down with a clang that echoed throughout the room. Her mind drowned under a wave of panic. This couldn’t be happening, it just couldn’t be! There was no possible way! What had been done to her to make her this, this thing! A mixture of emotions soon joined along with the fear, torturing her mind as she backed herself up into a corner. 

What are you going to do now? You can’t go back to the world now. You’re a monster now and you will never be seen as anything else. Not even your parents could love you now. It may be best if you just died down here, that way you wouldn’t have to see the fear on everyone’s faces when they see you. 

The thoughts tormented her until she felt a strong hand pull her up to her knees. She looked up to see the otter grabbing the collar of her shirt, a look of pure fury in her eyes. 

“You stupid girl!” She hissed at her, “You just ruined the perfect meal that I had so lovingly made for you!” The otter practically shoved her down to the floor. Selina scrambled to a corner as some form of protection, a vain attempt to get as far away from the psycho as possible. The fury still burned in the otter's eyes and Selina began to fear for her life. Yet the otter seemed to regain her composure and soon her chilling smile returned to her face. Selina saw a glint of some kind of emotion in the otter's eyes, some kind of sick glee before they turned away and started to walk to the curtain. They moved with an uncanny sway like they were entering a ball or a formal gathering. Everything they did made Selina feel sick, every small movement put her on edge.

The otter finally reached the curtain and turned back towards Selina. They smiled at her allowing Selina to see crooked and jagged teeth jutting out of rotten looking gums. Their eyes held a gaze of fake empathy directed towards Selina and made her squirm in place. 

“Deary,” the otter started, the venom in her voice hidden behind a motherly guise, “it's ok. I know you didn’t mean to wreck the meal I made like that, so I won’t punish you, at least not today. Although something has to happen, I can’t just let it go like that. So,” They directed their attention back towards the curtain and grabbed a corner and started to walk to the opposite end of the room to move it all to one side, “I’ll just let you see an… example of what I can do to you if you ever act out again.”

The otter disappeared into the dark side of the room that the curtain had once kept hidden. Selina strained her eyes to try and see something in the dark, anything that could clue her into what this person had planned. Yet, all she saw was darkness, threatening to drain all the life out of her. 

It felt like hours before anything changed in the room. Selina was beginning to worry that this person was setting up some kind of punishment for her and that was what was taking so long. Suddenly, blinding lights erupted in the room, so bright that Selina had to shield her eyes as they had become accustomed to the dark. She slowly drew her hands back away from her face and looked back out into the room. What she saw made her wish she was blind. 

Dangling from the roof of the room was an iron cage that held some kind of beast inside of it. The beast was hanging upside down so Selina could see its face more clearly. The creature was scrunched into the cage, metal squeezing its sides like an iron maiden as it slept. From what Selina could see, the creature was some kind of bat although like none she had seen before. Its fangs protruded from their mouth and it looked like its wings could cover a whole meter. Dark black claws protruded almost painfully from the tips of the wings and from its feet. Dark brown fur covered the rest of its body although there were patches where it was missing, allowing Selina to see wounds embedded deep into its body.

Selina was horrified, both at the creature and the abuse that it seemed to have received. Making everything worse, she felt like it was familiar in a way like she had known it in another life. Selina couldn’t tear her eyes away from the beast and she began to feel sick to her stomach. She doubled over and heaved like she was about to throw up but because she hadn’t eaten anything she was unable to. She looked back up at the creature with sympathy in her eyes as the otter appeared from out of nowhere, startling Selina. 

“Now Selina, you wouldn’t want to end up like this now, would you? I would hate to have to string you up like some kind of animal like your friend over there.” Selina just sat with her legs brought up to her chest to try and comfort herself. The ‘friend over there’ comment didn’t escape her, though. She felt like she was on the verge of figuring something out but it kept slipping through her grasp. The otter must have noticed her confusion despite Selina’s attempts to mask it. 

“Oh deary, you don’t recognize your friend? I must have done a better job than I initially thought.” The otter let out a shrieking laugh and made her way towards the wall where the creature hung. 

‘No. NO!’ Selina’s mind screamed as she clutched her head, a sudden headache making thinking become unbearable. 'That isn’t Teressa. It just isn’t! No anthro bat has that big of a wingspan or claws like that. Not to mention the teeth that are jutting out of its mouth. And I know Teressa! She doesn’t look like that in the slightest. Teressa’s like a big teddy bear, not some kind of...of monster!’ Yet as much as Selina tried to reassure herself that that wasn’t Teressa, the fact of their current predicament and how she had also changed form, she slowly began to feel like it truly was Teressa. 

Selina had been so caught up in her thoughts that she hadn’t been paying attention to the otter until she heard an ear piercing screech from the other side of the room. She whipped around and saw the beast thrashing around in its restrains. The otter was below it using a cattle prod to continuously shock the creature while it tried to free its wings from their bondage. Selina could only watch on as the otter kept shocking the creature, a look of sadistic glee plastered on their face while the beast screamed in pain. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the screams subsided and left nothing but silence...

“Are you awake yet?” The otter questioned the beast, yet the beast gave no response. The otter had a clear look of annoyance and gripped the cattle prod harder before jabbing it back into the beast’s side. A piercing wail shattered the silence and Selina covered her ears just to not hear the heart-wrenching screech.  
“I ASKED YOU A QUESTION! ARE YOU AWAKE!?!” The otter screamed towards the beast. Slowly, the beast gave an answer in the form of a shaky nod of the head.

“Good.” The otter purred as she tossed the cattle prod towards the wall. “I think I have someone here you would like to see. Do you want to see them?” Again, the creature gave no response. The otter let out a sigh before screeching at the beast, “DO YOU WANT TO SEE THEM.” The creature once again answered with a slow nod. 

The otter moved across the room and pressed a small white button on the wall. The cage that the beast was in slowly began to rotate clockwise towards Selina. Selina would herself at a loss for breath as stared into the big red beady eyes of the creature. She felt tears begin to well in her eyes as she looked at the mangled body of her friend, once soft brown fur now thick with dried blood on the tips. Selina could see the pain in her friend's eyes as they stared back at her. To see her once proud friend strung up by her feet and hanging from the ceiling was horrific, to say the least. What kind of monster could do such a thing to two innocent girls just out on a walk? 

“Well Selina, I hope this serves that your friend here serves as an example of why you shouldn’t cross me.” The otter sneered towards Teressa who rattled her cage in defiance. “I’m going to chalk your previous actions up as a mistake and will spare you the cage for right now; however, I think that not feeding you today will serve as a pseudo punishment.

“Now,” The otter clapped her two hands together and rubbed them with glee, “I have to go get some things prepared for you two. Besides, I think you two should enjoy each others company for right now. We’re going to be very busy soon so relish this moment.” 

And with that, the otter slunk off towards the door and closed it slowly, hinges creaking as the door shut. A second later there was a loud clanking sound and the lights started to turn off one by one, leaving Selina and Teressa in the dark. Selina back herself up against the wall, the tears that had begun to form earlier now spilling over as she wept. 

Ender’s big book of world building:  
Transmogrification: This specific type of magic allows for the changing of appearances, body structure, and abilities. When it was first discovered back in the Roman Empire, witches once used them to create legends such as the Minotaur. Transmogrification is the cause of many urban myths and legends and remained a secret craft up until it was outed a few years after the Salem witch trials. 

In short, transmogrification is the magic of changing appearances and traits. It is very unsafe and many that try it die during the process. This lead to transmogrifying witches to kidnap people from villages and attempting the process with them as their unwilling subject. Because of this, transmogrification was denounced and banned in the year 1903 during a global meeting of the world leaders to try and figure out what to do with witches. This meeting became known as the Marseille Conference. Transmogrification and necromancy books and resources were banned and burned to make sure that no one could perform that kind of magic again. The last known remaining transmogrification book, known as The Book of Flesh, resides in the Museum of Witchcraft in Cruzev, Guantano.


	12. Gathering Clouds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> song: The Girl by City and Color

“Coming up next, what happened during the break-in at the Museum of Witchcraft in Cruzev and where is The Book of Flesh now? And coming up later, mysterious cracks in the glass of Robert the doll’s case terrify guests and paranormal experts around the globe. All this and more after the break.”

Leon groaned as he stretched his hand out to reach to remote on the coffee table. It wasn’t that he hated paranormal shows, he just hated the news format that this one used. He lazily switched the channel to some kind of cop drama that he had never seen before. This weekend was moving by at a snail’s pace and without any jobs to do Leon was dying of boredom. There were no ammo runs to go on, no people to trail, and no buildings to stake out. He would play guitar or something but he had broken the strings and the new ones were supposed to come in a few days. Even all the others seemed bored; Emily was upstairs in her room tweaking her violin and Coral was downstairs doing something. 

Leon thought about Coral for a bit. For the last week she would walk in with a small “Hello,” then immediately head downstairs to work on whatever project she assigned for herself. Most of the time the group wouldn’t see her again till she left for her house at the end of the say. The only exception was when Leon spotted her sneaking out the back way to do something around noon a few days ago. Even Lex seemed a bit concerned about her and started to go down at about 2 in the afternoon to “check up on her progress,” even though it was clear he wanted to make sure she was ok. 

Leon groaned as he switched position on the couch so he could put his feet up on the coffee table. He was considering just going outside and counting blades of grass when he heard the sound of someone coming down the stairs. He peered over the couch to see Emily walking down the stairs. Her hair was unkempt, bits sticking out at random points made her look like she had just woken up. She was wearing a black t-shirt along with a pair of lounge pants and didn’t have her usual skull earrings in. Leon was a bit confused to see Emily like this. Usually, she would at least style her hair before going downstairs and being seen by people. The fact that she was allowing herself to be seen like this must have meant something. 

Emily reached the end of the stairs and walked into the living room, plopping down next to Leon on the couch. Leon was about to ask her what was going on when he heard someone else coming down the stairs. He directed his attention back towards the stairs to see Lex walking down them with a laptop and a stack of files in hand. He looked the opposite of Emily, except for the just waking up part. As opposed to looking worn out like Emily, Lex looked like he was full of energy and ready to take on the world. The only thing that held him back was the fact that he was still in his black colored pajamas and had dark circles under his eyes. 

Lex entered into the living room and set the things he was carrying down on the table before heading over towards the kitchen. Leon raised an eyebrow at the files and laptop. Curiosity replaced the boredom he had been feeling earlier and he had to stop himself from taking a small peek inside the files. He heard the basement door open and the sound of footsteps descending before hearing mumbles indicating a conversation happening down there. He sat up a bit straighter as Lex re-entered the room with Coral behind him. Coral was the only one that looked decent as she was dressed in her lab coat with her hair brushed and straight. She seemed a bit annoyed and was glaring a bit at Lex as she walked into the living room, sitting down in the leather chair that Lex usually sat in while downstairs.

The three looked at each other, trying to non verbally ask what was going on, as Lex knelt down next to the coffee table and typed something into the laptop. From the looks from everyone else, no one seemed to know what was going except Lex, who wasn’t telling anyone. He seemed to be preparing some kind of presentation and although Leon hated lectures he found himself slightly interested to at least find out why Lex was so excited. Even Emily, who almost always laid down on the couch, was starting to sit up a bit straighter to see what Lex was doing. Finally, after a minute of taping away at the laptop, Lex stood up. He cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention, even though he already had it with his odd behavior. 

“We have received an assignment from the GCR.” Lex started. Leon found himself deflating a little bit at the mention of the GCR because so far their ‘assignments’ usually just meant trailing some random pedestrian for a day only to find out that they are an average member of society and not worth the resources to investigate. It was like the GCR was just throwing darts at suspects and hoping that they get lucky. Still, it was an assignment and if it managed to make Lex excited it must be a little bit interesting.

“As some of you may have heard, there has been a recent string of kidnappings in the middle west, specifically in Diochi. Normally the GCR wouldn’t bother with kidnappings, but they were tipped off that the police had something to do with them.   
“The GCR believes that the police are withholding information from this report and want us to conduct a small investigation prior to their main team coming in. In a way, we are preparing a welcome mat for the GCR. We have one week to find additional information on the case before we have to turn it over to the GCR, less if we find something that the GCR finds imperative. We have to report back to them at the end of each day, a job that I will be handling. We supposed to leave for Diochi in three days and the drive is estimated to be approximately five to six hours long. We are all going in the same vehicle, a van that I will be renting for this occasion. We will be staying in two separate motel rooms once we arrive. And before anyone asks, no, you have to go.”

Leon felt Coral shift uncomfortably. She was still mad with Emily and he felt like she wasn’t very jazzed about having to spend a six-hour car ride and room a motel room with her ex. Regardless, Lex said that it was mandatory and that meant that there was no weaseling out of it. Lex continued on discussing details of the case and how to go about asking questions and interrogating but Leon decided to tune him out. Leon liked to do things his own way when it came to missions and he would be damned if the GCR would change that about him. He was secretly hoping that they would run into trouble because he was itching for action.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leon grunted as he lifted a heavy bag into the trunk of the van. Of course on the day that they had to pack the car and leave for Diochi, there would be a blistering sun. He wiped a bead of sweat off of his forehead and grabbed the next bag and hauled it into the back of the car, stacking it onto of the previous one. The small tower of luggage was leaning precariously but at this point, Leon couldn’t care less. He just wanted to finish up and get inside the air-conditioned car. Or better yet, stick his head partially out the window like a dog to cool down. Honestly, he was considering going back inside the house and sitting in the freezer for a while. And by the looks of it, Emily was sharing the sentiment. 

She had decided to help Leon out with the bags, maybe to avoid the awkward silence of the car. Emily was sitting in the front seat and was tapping away on her phone while the two worked on hauling her heavy bags into the van. Although Leon could understand giving Emily the cold shoulder, this was getting ridiculous! This was now taking a toll on Leon’s attitude and he found himself just wishing that Coral would just forgive Emily.   
Emily hauled the last of Coral’s bags into the van while Leon straightened everything out so that they wouldn’t fall over during the trip. He would hate to have to clean up a trunk full of ammo just because some bag fell over because they hit a pothole. Emily wiped the sweat off of her forehead and pulled out her phone from her pocket. She plugged in her earbuds before making her way to the backseat door. Leon followed after her after grabbing a bottle of water that he had decided to pack after seeing how hot the day was supposed to be. He looked over to see Lex in the driver's seat looking down at his watch. He had just gotten his cast off and was eager to get back to driving, even if it was in a slightly rusted van. 

Emily clambered into the rear of the van and Leon quickly followed after her. Emily acted like she didn’t care and was engrossed in her phone, yet she flicked her eyes towards Emily for a split second before reconcentrating on her phone, an action that didn’t go unnoticed by Leon. He sat at the opposite end of the car next to the left window so he could roll it down if he got too hot. Emily reached into the duffle bag that she had stashed in the back for entertainment and pulled out a DS, the familiar jingle being the only sound in the car other than the engine rumbling. 

After Lex made sure that everything was prepared for the trip, the gang set off on the road, the bumpy van bouncing at every stone they hit. Thankfully, they had set out at around 4 pm in the afternoon so there wasn’t much traffic in the city. They made their way out of the city in record time and before they knew it they were zooming down an open highway at 60 miles per hour. However, it wasn’t long before they ran into a small problem. Apparently, the van’s ac in the backseat was broken, so essentially the group had to stay in the beat up rented van with no ac on one of the hottest days of summer. 

Leon and Emily rolled down their windows to let the wind into the car to attempt to cool it off, yet it wasn’t enough. Even Lex and Coral, who had working ac in the front, were wiping beads of sweat off of their foreheads. Emily had had enough of the heat and rolled her window down almost the entire way down and stuck her head out. She relished in the feeling of wind blowing in her face, it felt like she was racing through a summer morning, her nose picking up on the scents of wild tropical flowers on the side of the road. She could care less about how her hair was going to mess up when she decided to stop doing this, yet at the moment she didn’t care. The pink streak in her pixie cut hair flew by in the air. Emily felt free, like all the worries that swarmed her mind had just disappeared. 

She looked over to Leon and saw him also sticking part of his head out the window, the fur on his face being pushed back as the wind blew against him. His face displayed a mix of relief and enjoyment and he stuck his head out a bit farther to get as much enjoyment as possible. He brought up a fist in the air and let out a yell that Emily couldn’t help but laugh at. In many ways, Leon was like a little kid, just wanting to get as much enjoyment from life. It did warm her heart to see someone not affected by the horrors and stress of the world that they lived in. It brought her back to when she was a little kid, running around in the woods behind her house. She used to climb up trees and search for frogs in creeks, catching them and making small huts made from sticks and stones. And then she would drag her dad out to see what she had built, anxiously waiting for him to congratulate her on her building skills. They would then go back and tell her mother, which always ended up with Emily being scolded for getting mud on her shoes.

And yet, she would still continue to do it. She would roll in the grass and run around her house like a mad man. No matter how many times she would get yelled at by her mother or would get hurt, she always does it again. Her dad used to call Emily his ‘little bull’ because she would ram her way through the house like a bull in a china closet. Even all these years later, she could still hear her dad’s voice calling her that. It reminded her of happier times before… well, she didn’t want to think about something that would ruin her state of mind, especially not that.   
She shook her head and has snapped back to reality, the wind still blowing in her hair and the scents of the world around her coming back to life. It was then that she finally hear someone from the van calling her name. She ducked her head back into the van to find out what was going on.

“Emily!” Coral snapped, her voice clearly annoyed. Emily could tell that this wasn’t going to go well, yet she responded anyway.

“Yah? What do you want.”

Coral let out a sigh. “Don’t stick your head out the window, you might end up getting hurt. Not to mention you’re encouraging Leon to do the same and thus being a bad influence on him.”

“Leon’s an adult, he can do what he wants.” Emily huffed. She hated it when Coral acted like she knew what was better, regardless of if it was right or not. It just reminded her a bit too much of her mother, and that wasn’t a good thing. 

“And so are you, so stop acting like a kid and bring your head back in the van.” Coral snapped back at Emily before muttering something else under her breath. 

“At least I know how to have fun every once and awhile,” Emily grumbled just loud enough for the rest of the van to hear. This wasn’t fair, Coral couldn’t just boss her around like this. Emily was her own adult and would do whatever she damn pleased. She wasn’t going to let someone tell her what to do, even if it was someone she loved. Not to mention Coral had been a complete stick in the mud for the last week or so.

Coral turned in her seat to face the back seat. It was then that both Emily and Leon knew that this wasn’t going to end well. Annoyance was plastered all over Coral’s face and she was giving Emily a look that said ‘You have no idea what you’ve just done.’ Yet rather than being intimidated by the look, Emily gave the same look back at Coral. If she was going to play this game, then Emily was to do the exact same thing. There was a moment of silence, just the two ex-lovers staring at each other with anger in each of their eyes. Then the dam broke.

“Maybe I just know how to be a sensible adult instead of parading around like a kid with no responsibilities in the world.”

“Or maybe you’re just bitter that you can’t be like me.”

“Oh please, like I would ever want to act like a broody goth person that stays in their room playing video games and reminiscing about their tortured past.”

“At least I’m not a jealous bitch who will trample on everyone else to get what they want.”

“When have I ever done that.”

“High school.”

“Oh my god,” Coral bitterly laughed, “I can’t believe you’re going to bring up high school. You need to get out of the past.”

“And you need to get your head out of your ass and stop acting like your god’s gift to the anthro race.” Emily raised her voice a bit at saying that. She could see Leon shifting uncomfortably in his seat and Lex giving sympathetic looks from the rearview mirror. But Emily was too pissed off to care. She had been keeping all this inside for the last month and now she was just letting it all out. 

“Well, I’ve got to be honest, Emily, I’m a bit proud of you. It looks like you’re being honest for once in your life.” Ouch, low blow. Normally, Emily would have stormed off after having their break up be used to win an argument, but not today. No, Coral would not win this one. She wasn’t going to relinquish just because Coral made her feel guilty. 

“Do you want me to be honest with you Coral, huh? Because here's the truth. You’re acting like a fucking child. You’ve been avoiding me for the past week and when we do happen to be in the same room together you’re always trying to find a way to get under my skin. And the thing is that I’ve gotten used to it and you can’t stand that, you can’t stand to see me doing alright. So now you’re going to try and boss me around like you’ve done so many times in the past until I relinquish.

"But here's the thing, I know how you work, how you operate, all the signs that you aren’t doing so well. For god's sake, Coral, we’ve lived together for the past six years! And I know for a fact that you don’t actually care if I stick my head out the window. This isn’t about me lying about my job. No, this is about something else, something that I had nothing to do with. Whatever it is that’s stewing around in that mind of yours has got you tossing and turning in the night, unable to fall asleep. I can tell because of the dark circles under your eyes that I know aren’t from work. So why don’t you enlighten me, Coral? What's this all about? What did you do that is just wreaking havoc in that mind of yours, hmm?”  
“  
Please stop.” Leon watched on as the once prideful demeanor that Coral had disappeared. In its place stood a frightful mess, eyes wide and watery with the beginning of tears. Her voice quivered and shook like a little kid explaining to their parent that they had screwed up. It was a total tonal shift that had honestly caught Leon by surprise. He had been so focused on the scathing words coming from Emily that he had completely forgotten about Coral. The slight uncomfort he had felt at the beginning of their argument had turned itself into full-on worry. Yet there was nothing he could do but just let the scene play out in front of him.

“What is it Coral?,” Emily asked with mock sympathy, “Do you feel guilty about something? Is that why your such a mess right now? Is something reminding you of what you did?” 

A small sniffle was all that Coral could respond with. Leon could only imagine what was going on in her mind. He made eye contact with Lex in the rearview mirror to see that he also shared his worry at the situation. 

“I wonder if it could have something to do with you shooting and almost killing me on the rooftop! Is that it, Coral? How you almost killed your girlfriend because you wouldn’t let her explain anything? And then how you proceeded to make her feel like shit every time you say her just so you could tell yourself that she was the problem? Is that what's been haunting you!” 

“That's enough!” Lex roared. He had finally had enough and decided that something needed to be done. He was a second away from pulling the car over onto the side of the road and letting the two walk. Either that or just calling a cab for one of them so that the two weren’t in the same car as each other. Thankfully, his yelling seemed to do the trick as it stunned Emily into silence. She muttered something under her breath as she sunk back into her seat, Coral doing the same. 

The car was once again filled with silence, the working front air conditioning and the occasional sniffle from Coral being the only sounds. Leon rolled his window up and Emily did the same, both of them deciding to just stare out the window, the magic of sticking their heads out destroyed by the recent argument.   
Emily stared out the window at the passing trees and cars. She wanted to stay mad at Coral, hell, she was furious a second ago. Yet despite her trying to reassure herself that Coral had it coming, she still couldn’t justify her actions. Yes, she had been holding that back for the past month but this was certainly not the way she wanted to go about confronting Coral. The way she had phrased everything and yelled at Coral made it seem like she hated her now. And although she was angry with Coral for treating her poorly for the last month, she wasn’t angry enough to intentionally hurt her. 

Emily listened to the soft sniffles coming from the passenger side seat, feeling like this was truly the end of their relationship in any way. In the past 7 years that the two had been a relationship, Emily had only heard Coral cry a total of 9 times. Not once had she ever been the cause of it, not until today. And so, as the car bumped along on the poorly paved road, Emily found herself fighting back tears while dwelling on her actions. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------

About four or so hours into the trip, Lex and Leon agreed that it was time for a quick stop. They planned to stop off at rest area with a gas station and a food place for anyone whos hungry. Fifteen minutes later, they were pulling up to a small rest stop with a speedy blue fast food joint. Lex decided to stay out at the car and fill it with gas while Leon went in to order some food for himself. Emily has followed him inside while Coral lay fast asleep in the car. Emily gave her order to Leon then disappeared somewhere in the gas station store. Leon decided to just give her some time to herself and went to go order some food.

So that was why he was sitting in a table in the middle of the speedy blue waiting for his order to be called. He was scrolling through his phone, mindlessly scrolling through subreddits and the news. He wasn’t even really paying attention to the screen, instead just using it as a distraction. His mind kept switching between sympathy for Emily to sympathy for Coral. He honestly didn’t know whose side to take and that was probably the worst thing about the situation. There was no right answer, no easy way out, no side to take without hurting the other. 

He was caught off guard by the cashier calling his order number. He sighed and stood up, cracking his back in a stretch before making his way to the counter and grabbing his bag. The smell of the cheese dog he had order wafted into his nose as he set out into the gas station store to find Emily and bring her back to the car. He passed by the surly employ that faintly smelled of cigarette smoke and started to search the aisle. Leon passed by shelves full of second-hand movies, small trinkets in the shape of Guantano for tourists to buy, bags of chips and other assorted snacks until he reached back of the store. There, sunk down next to a shelf full of Cheesy Crisps, was Emily. She was a pitiful sight, eyes stained red from crying, and a now half empty beer bottle in her left hand. In her right hand, she held a leather cuff bracelet, one that she usually wore on her right arm. She was just turning it over, running her paw over the soft yet rough material. 

Leon’s mind instantly went to comfort mode. He slowly took a few steps forward, happy that it seemed Emily hadn’t noticed him just yet. He sunk down onto the ground next to her and pulled his legs to his chest. He waited a few seconds before speaking softly as to not startle Emily. 

“Isn’t it a bit early for drinking?”

Emily looked up from the bracelet and let out a low, shaky chuckle. She took another swig of the beer, the semi-cold liquid going down her throat easily, leaving a hint of lime on her tongue. 

“It’s almost 5, I think that I can get a pass on this one.”

Leon let out a small snort before the two fell back into silence. The whir of the nearby freezer filled the silence that stood between them. Leon toyed around with his pocket while Emily brushed her thumb across her drink, letting the cool condensation roll down her fur. She was thankful that no one had entered the small store and seen her sitting on the ground crying into her beer. And even though she didn’t want anyone from the team seeing her in this state, she was kind of glad that Leon had stumbled upon her. As childlike as he was, he did know how to tone it down and be emotional support.

It felt like an hour had passed before either of them said a word, possibly because both of them were too worried to disturb the comfortable silence that they had fallen into. So it was a surprise to Leon when Emily decides to speak again.

“Sorry about the yelling earlier. I didn’t mean to let things get that out of hand.”

“Emily, it's fine. It was bound to happen at some point, with or without us there.”

“I know but I…” Emily let out a strained sigh before continuing on, “I didn’t want it to happen like that.”

“Well, what's done is done. We can’t go back and change it, we just have to continue onwards.”

Emily let off a soft ‘hmm’ in confirmation before diverting her attention back towards the ground. She didn’t want to get too deep with Leon, especially not while lying on a cold and dirt floor of a gas station. Leon could be heard drumming his fingers on his leg, obviously contemplating something over. She just hoped that whatever it was that he was itching to ask her wasn’t some truth that was going to throw her back into a depressive spiral. 

“Hey, Emily.” Leon finally asked, his voice hesitant.

Moment of truth.

“Yes, Leon.”

“Do you… still, love Coral?”

So much for hopping. Coral could feel the tears beginning to form at the back of her eyes, yet she pushed them back. She wasn’t going to cry over a simple question. Still, it brought the one thing that kept Emily up at night, tossing and turning in bed, trying to get it out of her head but to no avail. Her mind began to fill with all the memories she and Coral shared throughout the years, all the highs, the lows, the laughs they had shared together, and even the quiet and sad moments were they had been there for each other. 

Then she thought back to that night on the roof, the buckshot round that had pushed her off the roof, the note that Coral had left her on her new bed, the fact that she didn’t even hear her out before dumping her unceremoniously. Then her mind brought her back to that night at the bar and how she had intentionally flirted with a man just to rile Emily up. Emily wasn’t stupid, she knew what Coral was doing that night. Hell, Coral was a lesbian, there was no way she would flirt with a guy for any other reason than to make Emily jealous. Even the small things that Coral was doing to spite Emily were being magnified in her mind. 

Emily wished she could just turn her mind off, to just stop thinking for a moment. She couldn’t take all the memories being played out. And it wasn’t just memories her mind was analyzing. No, her mind was now asking her questions. Why had Emily lied to Coral? What had happened to her and Coral? Was there something else that contributed to their break up? Why was Coral avoiding her? What could Emily have done differently? And worst of all, did Emily deserve Coral?

“Emily, you ok? You kind of spaced out there for a second.” 

Emily blinked a few times, Leon’s voice snapping her out of her thoughts. She wiped at her eyes to get rid of the tears that were rolling down her face. 

“You know what, I’m sorry I asked. I didn’t realize you were upset about something. I should probably head back to the car…”

“Yes,” Emily answered. She faced straight ahead, staring at nothing in particular. As much as Leon was surprised to hear Emily, no one as surprised as Emily was. She was surprised that she even managed to make a sound after being trapped in her thoughts. Hell, she probably would have run out the door and hid under a tree. So why didn’t she? Maybe it was Leon’s warm and innocent demeanor, or maybe it was the beer acting as liquid courage. Or maybe it was something more. Maybe Emily was finally being honest with herself for the first time since she had broken up with Coral. She was finally looking at everything, all the events that had happened and not avoiding them and the feelings they brought. 

It was no secret that Emily wanted nothing more than to be with Coral again. But she was finally beginning to see both her and Coral’s faults, things that they needed to address. She was looking beyond the now and into the future, both with and without Coral. 

“Yes, I want her more than anything in the world. I want nothing more than to wrap her up in my arms and kiss her until my dying days. But with everything that has happened, everything that we have done to each other in the last month, I can’t see us getting back together. And if I’m being honest, that scares the hell out of me. If I had a second chance, I would change everything she wanted of me, but I don’t think that I deserve that now. But there's something else, some part of me keeps thinking that there's more to this story, but I don’t know what that is. And without that piece of the puzzle, I may never recover.” 

Emily hung her head low, her nails digging into her skin as she struggled to contain the tears that threatened to rain down onto the floor. She didn’t hear anything from Leon and assumed that he was thinking about something. She felt empty like all the life had been sucked out of her from just a small speech.   
“I think you should talk to Coral.”

Emily turned her head to see Leon fidgeting with his shirt. He didn’t seem comfortable with what he was saying, even though there was nothing wrong about his advice. 

“Look, you’re never going to get anywhere with Coral until you talk to her. If you really believe that she can give the missing piece of what went wrong then you need to find out what it is. You’re never going to find anything out if you keep beating yourself up over a story where you don’t know all the details. And maybe once you do that, you can start to heal.”

Emily and Leon sat there on the floor for a moment more, Emily stewing over all of what Leon had said to her. She knew that he was right, nothing was going to change unless someone took the first step. But it was that first step that scared Emily. What if she pushed Coral further away? What if it all ended in another fight? What if it would mark the end of their relationship?

“Hey, we should probably get going. The gang is going to start getting worried that we fell in the toilets or something.” Emily looked up to see Leon standing above her, his hand outstretched to help Emily up. He had a sympathetic yet playful look on his face, making sure to speak softly to Emily as to not startle her. Emily couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle before taking his hand and being pulled up to her feet. She stumbled a bit as she found her footing, but Leon was there to help her out. The two let out a little laugh as they started towards the door. Leon handed her the fast food bag that she had forgotten was his main purpose of going into the gas station. Emily threw her mostly empty beer bottle out in a nearby trash can as they passed the cashier. 

Stepping outside, the two were created by the warm summer air and the sky setting. Leon looked up and admired the beauty of it all. Somehow, despite being in a slightly run-down gas station, nature still managed to shine through. The sky burned a fiery orange with mixes of red as the oncoming night crept in towards Guantano. Leon breathed in deeply once before continuing to walk towards the van. He stepped into the van, noticing that Coral had woken up at some point. She was currently looking down at her lap, fiddling with a shell that Leon had left in the passenger side door. She looked nervous like something was disturbing her at the back of her mind and it wasn’t hard to think about what that thing was. Leon just continued to climb into his seat, strapping his seat belt in before kicking his sandals off on the floor of the van. Emily followed soon after him, giving a longing look to Coral before sitting in her seat. 

After they told Lex they were ready to go, the van left the gas station, leaving behind the surly cashier and continuing on the road. Leon sighed, exhausted both emotionally and physically, and opened up the fast food bag. The scent of fresh hot dogs had long since disappeared yet Leon continued, digging his hand in and grabbing out Emily’s food and passing it to her. She took it and thanked him before directing her attention back towards the window she had been looking out of. Leon could tell that she wasn’t in the mood for food, probably because she had too much on her mind. 

‘That's fine, she needs to think’ Leon thought to himself before grabbing his hot dog out. He started to unwrap the shiny covering, anxiously awaiting to sink his teeth into something of sustenance. Leon looked down at his hot dog only to groan loudly.

“They forgot the cheese on my cheese dog,” Leon whined to the van. He saw Lex shake his head in disappointment and Emily give him a sympathetic look before continuing to look out the window. Leon grumbled under his breath before picking up his cheeseless cheese dog and taking a bit out of it. So far, this trip not been the most fun and Leon could only hope that it wouldn’t continue like this.

\-----------------------------------------------------

Lex concentrated on the seemingly endless road that stretched into the horizon. They had long since left the sandy shores of Guantano and moved inland to the luscious vibrant jungles filled with wildlife. It was significantly less crowded out here than in the city and Lex found himself smiling at the feeling of solidarity these roads brought. He was used to busy and crowded streets of San Picalo that the feeling of an open road was freeing to him.   
He looked around the van to see everyone else either asleep or teetering on the edge of it. Leon had curled himself up into a ball on his seat while Emily had fully stretched out, using as much room in the van as possible to make herself comfortable. Coral had fallen asleep with her knees pulled up close to her chest, yet those legs were now stretched out on the dashboard of the car. Lex chuckled to himself at the sleeping figures of his colleges before refocusing on the road ahead. If he had been keeping time correctly, they should be arriving at their destination relatively quickly and for that, Lex was grateful. As much as he was glad to be driving again, he would be so happy to stretch his legs and collapse on a cheap hotel mattress. 

 

To keep himself busy, he thought about the GCR. There was one main question that kept bugging him. Why did the GCR think that investigating the police would lead to finding the missing people? Wouldn’t it be better to conduct it like a normal investigation and find the key suspects? Why did the GCR think the corruption in the police (if there was any) had anything to do with the disappearances? 

Lex wrinkled his nose up. Something wasn’t right here. The way this case came about left a bad taste in Lex’s mouth. But what could he do? The group was under direct order from the GCR so they had to do it. Lex sighed, maybe the GCR was right and there was a connection between the police and the missing people.

Maybe he was just being superstitious. 

Yet as the van turned off the highway, Lex couldn’t get his mind off of the case. He found his mind analyzing every small and unimportant detail about everything, from the person who called him to assign them the case to the paper that the case details were printed on. Lex rubbed his head and groaned, turning on the radio a tiny bit to drown out his thoughts. He turned the dials until he heard a slow and calming song playing. 

Relaxing slightly, Lex continued on the road, following the GPS on his phone and turning onto unfamiliar roads. The road became tighter and tighter until it was just two lanes. The only sign of civilization was road signs dictating that a town was coming up. Long, leafy branches swayed in the light night wind as the world settled in for sleep. The nighttime critters had once again come out to sing their song. And in the van, the group slept as Lex continued past a sign metal road sign with green vines growing on the sides that read “Welcome to Diochi.” And as Lex drove, he looked up to the sky, noticing clouds gathering above, waiting for the perfect storm to let their rage onto both the town and the gang.


	13. Early Morning Investigations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song: Devil Town by Cavetown

Leon awoke to a shove on his shoulder. He groaned and pulled the covers closer to himself to try and savor the comfort for another few seconds. A second shove, now harder, made him peek his eye open. Coral was standing there with a slightly annoyed look on her face. Leon grunted and flipped onto his other side to be defiant. He could hear Coral sigh before making her way to the other side of the bed. A moment later the covers were yanked off of him, the cold morning air rushing to his side. He immediately shot up from the bed, hugging his chest with his arms to try and get warm. He sent a glare towards Coral’s direction, to which she just sighed and rolled her eyes before making her way to the bathroom. 

The group had arrived at the hotel at sunset the day before. After checking in to their rooms, they hauled their luggage from the van. Leon and Lex had decided it would be best if they put Coral and Emily in separate rooms so they didn’t tear each other's throats out. Lex had insisted on keeping everyone at the hotel that night so they could get optimal rest for the next day. Despite this, Leon still watched tv until midnight, even with Coral telling him to stop. Now Leon was beginning to regret not falling asleep sooner. 

Leon stretched and walked over to the wall where he had plugged in his phone. He rubbed his eyes as he switched it on, reading the time at the top of the screen. He almost dropped the phone when he read out the time.

“5:45!” Leon groaned before unplugging his phone and walking towards his duffle bag that had his clothes. “I knew Lex wanted to get a head start today, but I didn’t think that it would be this early!” Leon slipped on a gray t-shirt with a moon on it and a pair of black cargo shorts. He let out a loud yawn as Coral exited the bathroom now dressed in a white button-up t-shirt and a red skirt. Her hair was pulled up into a bun and she carried her pistol in her right hand. She made her way to the large mirror with the sinks under it before beginning to apply makeup. Leon laid on the bed and waited until she had finished before heading to the sink and brushing his teeth. 

After that, the two slipped on their shoes, making idle talk about how early in the morning it was and headed out the door. They were greeted by a strong gust of wind and a slight chill, the earth’s way of telling people to curl up under the covers and go back to sleep until it was ready for the morning. The moon had begun its descent back down towards the earth, and in an hour or so, the sun would take its place high in the sky. 

Emily and Lex were waiting by the car, Emily leaning against the side while Lex opted for standing straight up with his hands behind his back. Lex was dressed in his usual attire for this kind of excursion, a long-sleeved white button-up and black blazer with long black pants to match. Leon had to snort a bit at the sight. Lex always looked like some kind of dorky hitman. Emily had also opted for wearing black pants, although unlike Lex, hers were torn at the knees. She was also wearing a black jacket that probably had a skull design on the back and black aviators. Her streak of pink hair was gelled up to make it stand out more. In all honesty, Leon couldn’t decide if she looked like a badass or an edgy teenager. 

Lex greeted the two with a smile and gestured for them to get in the van. Emily made sure to look at the ground when Coral was in front of her to avoid eye contact. When she looked up, Leon caught a hint of something in her eyes although he couldn’t tell if it was guilt, sadness, or longing. She disappeared into the back of the van before he could see any more. Leon let out a sigh and followed her inside the van, taking a seat at the opposite end of the car. A moment later, Emily opened the passenger side door and silently sat down. Leon swore he would have heard a small sniffle in the van, although whether that was Coral or Emily he couldn’t tell. Once Lex had made sure to brief everyone on what they were doing that day, the van started down the old road into town.

\-----------------------------------

The van pulled into the parking lot of the small and shabby police station five minutes later. Leon was the first to exit the van, taking a deep breath and letting the smell of morning dew filled his nostrils. He kicked a pebble across the cracked and decaying asphalt as he waited for the rest of the gang to get out. It was clear to anyone who saw it that it was in desperate need of repaving. That statement could be said about all the roads in the town. Despite how short the ride was, the group had found themselves bouncing up and down and being jostled side to side from the number of potholes and cracks that lined the road. 

Much like the road, the sheriff's office looked to be barely intact. The wood had lost the paint that had once brought a vibrant white color to the building and the stairs leading up to the door showed signs of wear and tear. In a way, it was impressive how broken down a still functioning office could be if they had the rest of the town backing it. The bushes outside the station had not been properly tended to, leading to branches reaching out in every direction like hands trying to catch observant prey. 

Emily stepped out of the van and snorted at the sigh of the police station. It certainly didn’t look like a police station. It looked more like an abandoned house than anything else. The only thing that identified it as a police station was the faded blue “Police” sign that rested unevenly next to the door. Coral was confused at the sight when she stepped out of the car while Lex looked as stoic as ever. 

“Hey Lex, are we at the right building?” Coral asked him, her eyes never leaving the broken down building.

“Yes, this is the place,” Lex simply replied before making his way to the steps that lead up to the door. Leon and Coral shared a quick confused glance before following him up, Emily sauntering behind them. 

The inside of the station was no better than outside. The white paint in the hallway was beginning to peel off the walls and the floor was marked with mud from boots and shoes. A potted plant resided at the end of the hallway was beginning to wilt and die from improper care. The group continued on through the dilapidated hallway, taking in the sights of what was supposed to be the pillar of this town’s safety. 

After a few seconds, they reached a wooden door at the end of the hallway. With a small nod to the rest of the group, Lex slowly opened up the door and stepped in while the rest followed behind him. The room that they had entered was about the size of a living room with walls very similar to the ones in the hallway. Six small and cluttered desks were lined up in two rows in the center of the room, each with a small computer monitor that was five years out of date. Pictures lined the walls with images of past and present employees of the police office. On the opposite wall was a door with a glass window with white words that spelled out the name of the sheriff. A shadow darted in the room, signifying that someone was currently in the room. With a deep breath, Lex knocked on the glass.

A second later the door swung open to reveal a tall and lanky bull with long and pointed horns. The bull was dressed in a striped polo and tan long pants that just barely reached his ankles. To be honest, he didn’t even look like a sheriff unless you counted one on their day off. His brownish red hair had been gelled back and put into a ponytail. He wore a pair of what Lex supposed were reading glasses. 

“Hello, I’m assuming you’re the reporters that called a few days ago?” He asked in a pleasant but painfully fake happy voice.   
“Yes, I’m sorry that we’re a bit early. We just figured if we could start early then we would have more time to get some other interviews in.” It had been discussed a day before the group left the city of San Benedicto that they would be using the guise of reporters interested in the recent disappearances. This was so that if it was true that there was something shady going on in the sheriff's department it wouldn’t suddenly disappear. It was a common occurrence during GCR missions that once they introduced themselves as GCR, any shady activity seemed to stop until the investigation had concluded. But, because Lex and Leon were technically their own branch of the organization, they got to bend the rules. 

“Oh no, I totally understand. To be honest, I also have some work to get done around the office so starting sooner would work out just wonderfully for me.” Lex and the sheriff shook hands before the bull stood aside and gestured for everyone to enter the room. Once everyone was inside, the sheriff closed the door to give them a bit of privacy. Even if it was early in the morning, some people may come in early to get some work done or kiss up to their bosses. Emily hated those type of people. They always were looking for ways to suck up to their bosses, sometimes to the expense of the employees. A little stroking of the ego always got someone into the boss's good graces. 

Once everyone had found a stop in the room, the group standing up while the sheriff sat in his unusually plush and expensive looking office chair, Lex continued to talk. 

“Thank you for agreeing to meet with us Mr. Waternose. Usually a lot of the people we try to interview straight up turn us down, usually with a string of explicits.”

“Oh please, you can just call me Jacob. And I am more than happy to get interviewed. I mean, it's not like there's anything else going around in this sleepy little town.” He said the last part while proceeding to toss a crumpled up sheet of paper into a garbage bin with a small plastic basketball backboard on it. His laid back and casual attitude was starting to irk Lex just a bit, but he didn’t let it show and continued to talk.

“Well, like we discussed in the email, we’re here about the missing people. In the past month, 7 people have gone missing in this town. Now, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you why several grown adults suddenly vanishing into thin find it a bit suspicious or even disturbing. Especially in a sleepy town like this.” Ok, so maybe Lex was showing off a bit of his annoyance. Thankfully, Jacob didn’t seem to mind or even notice as he swiveled in his chair a bit (seriously, that was a nice looking chair!). 

“I completely understand that. In fact, these disappearances have been the most eventful thing to happen in this town since the bar got repainted. But these cases have little to no evidence that can help us. It's like these people have just vanished into thin air.

“Now, if you ask me,” He continued on, “I think that these kids have just run off somewhere. You know how it is, rambunctious young adults want to escape the town they lived in so they abandon everything in search or fame and glory. Its a tale as old as time in our town. Besides, who wants to spend their time here when they could be out ‘living life’ and spending their life savings on unimportant things.”

Despite the bitter words the sheriff was saying, his demeanor stayed the same. Lex wondered how someone could be so laid back even when people were going missing. The way he acted was so flippant, so arrogant that Lex wanted to slap a pair of cuffs on him and send him off to the GCR just for his attitude. Lex let out a small sigh. If he didn’t finish up this interview soon he might do something violent or rash. Even though Lex was good at not showing his anger, this man was really pushing the boundaries. Thankfully, Coral seemed to notice Lex’s growing anger and took over talking for him.

“So, Jacob, have you found anything in your investigations to help get a clearer picture of what's happening around here or is it just speculation right now.” 

Jacob leaned back in his chair and scratched his chin, trying to seem deep in thought. “You know, I think we found a printed out recite tickets in one their apartments. I bet you money that they itching to get out of here and bought them ahead of time, then took the flight out of here. To me, it really looks like they just hightailed it out of here.”

This was going nowhere and it was quickly becoming obvious to the group that they weren’t going to get any information out of this guy. He was really keen on his ‘they wanted out of this town’ theory and it seemed like nothing would change his mind. Lex turned around to face the rest of the group and one look at their eyes showed that they shared the same sentiment. It looks like this was going to be a short interview. 

“Alright, I think we’ve got everything we need to know. Thank you for your time Jacob.” Lex said, turning back to Jacob and extending his hand for a parting handshake. 

“Please, the pleasure is all mine. I’m always looking for something to shake up the norm of the day.” Jacob took Lex’s hand and shook it vehement manner. Lex quickly retracted his hand after they had finished and turned to walk towards the door. A moment later, the door closed behind them, officially putting an end to the interview.  
   
“Fuck,” Lex mumbled under his breath. This was certainly not the interview any of them had expected. Lex thought that he could at the very least get some kind of information that they could use, best case scenario was that the sheriff accidentally incriminated himself and they could have slapped some cuffs on him and wait for the GCR to pick him up while they went off to find the missing people. But the sheriff had been anything but helpful. Not because he was unhelpful, but because he didn’t share or say anything that could help them. In short, the sheriff was a dead end, nothing to help with the investigation of reveal that he was corrupt. Well, there was one thing that seemed suspicious. 

“Hey, don’t you think it's odd how he thinks that seven people all decided to skip a town with less than a population of 3,000, where people rarely leave, in the last month alone?” Leon asked Lex once they had gotten outside. The sun was not shining bright in the sky even though it was still early in the morning. 

“I know. It seems highly unlikely that that would happen that people of relatively the same age would all leave so suddenly.” Lex said as he opened up the driver's side door. 

Leon entered into the backseat with Emily. It seemed like the interview had sucked out all the positive energy that they once had and replaced it with doubt. Of course, their job wasn’t done yet just because their lead suspect looked to be clean. After a few seconds, Lex shifted the car into drive and started back onto the main town road towards their next destination, one that would hopefully be more helpful than the police station.

\------------------------------------------------------------

“Hey Emily, look at this!” Leon called over his shoulder. Emily’s ears perked up in curiosity as she made her way over to where he was crouched down. He was looking at a shelf directly next to the small, outdated tv. After leaving the police station, the group had decided to grab some coffee at the only coffee shop in the town. While there, Lex had decided to ask the owner if they knew anything about the disappearances. The owner said what was essentially the same thing that the sheriff had said, that they were a bunch of rebellious adults that wanted out of the town. Even the one random patron in the shop decided to add his two cents in the matter, saying that he had heard one of the earlier victims say that they were moving to the U.S. Needless to say, the coffee shop detour had only added more doubt and unease in the mind of the team. 

They had arrived at the apartment of the two latest victims, Selina and Teressa, shortly after they left the coffee shop. Much like the rest of the town, the outside’s bright red bricks had their color faded to a muddy brown. The hallways inside smelled like mold and Emily swore she heard a mouse squeak from somewhere. It didn’t take long to find the apartment that the girls had lived in and even less time for Emily to lock pick into the room. 

The first thing the group noticed was that it looked like someone still lived in it. The pantry was stock(granted with off-brand chips and expired food), clothes still lined the floor in the bedroom, the appliances in the kitchen still resided in their spot, waiting for their owners to use them. The team had decided to split up and look for anything suspicious in the apartment, Leon and Emily taking the kitchen and living room while Lex and Coral looked in the bedrooms. So far, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, aside from the question that everyone had on their mind. 

“Look at this.” Leon pulled out a DVD from the shelf and handed it to Emily. Emily’s mouth flew open in surprise.

“This is a special steel case edition of The Legend of the Steam Enchanter! These go for at least 750 dollars!” Emily exclaimed. She turned the case over and ran her fingers over the smooth and shiny cover. The bold white letters glimmered in the dull orange light of the apartment as Emily found herself asking the same question that everyone had.

“Why would someone leave this behind.” She whispered as she placed the case back in its spot on the shelf. This just didn’t make sense. Why would the sheriff be so adamant about his ‘they left’ theory when their apartment was still full of their things? And why did the town have the same line of thinking as the sheriff? Emily let out a low grunt as she stood back up. Something was going on here. At the very least, the sheriff had made a simple white lie to cover for the girls so they could escape the town. At the worst… 

Emily was brought out of her thoughts as Lex and Coral walked into the living room. The two shared the same serious expression that Emily thought for a second that they were the same person. Leon stood up in anticipation and waited for them to share their findings.

“I would say that nothing looks out of the ordinary for a person living here.” Lex started, “The bathroom is still stocked with cleaning products, the rooms contain piles upon piles of both clean and dirty clothes, and the suitcases were in the closet and they didn’t look like they had been touched in quite a while. Coral also found a relatively good laptop that's in working condition on one of their beds”

“Well, the pantry is stocked with about what you would expect from two people barely scrounging up enough money for rent and the tv along with its accessories are also here. I also found a ‘rainy day emergency’ stack of cash in one of the cupboards and Leon found a rare video game that costs about 750 at the least. I think from what you guys said that the only thing missing from here are phones and a wallet.” Emily spoke up, “I don’t know about you guys, but this doesn’t seem like the apartment of people that moved out.”

“Well, what if they just took a vacation? If it’s a vacation, you don’t need to bring along your whole apartment because you’re going to be coming back here?” Coral just had to be the one to play devil’s advocate. Emily wasn’t sure whether to yell at her for being difficult or pin her to the wall and…

‘Nope. Not going to even go there.’ Emily thought as she reeled her thoughts back in to focus on the case. She could debate in her head later, for now, there were a group of missing people that they needed to find and a possible tie in with the police. 

“It's highly unlikely, Emily.” Thank god Lex was the one to answer her. Leon would have just kind of stumbled on his answer and Emily didn’t trust herself to not escalate the situation into a yelling match. “ If you were going on vacation, wouldn’t you also bring along your phone chargers. And why not bring your laptop to get work done. Not to mention, it doesn’t seem like their boss knew they were leaving for anywhere as they were the ones that reported them missing.” 

“So what? Does that mean we can officially call the police department corrupt for getting a theory wrong?” Coral rebutted, a slight tone of annoyance in her voice.

“No, but it does mean that the police department didn’t conduct a full investigation. Even if they don’t have anything to do with the missing people, we can still get them in trouble for this.” Lex calmly replied. Coral seemed to calm down a bit after his response. 

“So what you’re saying is that the police department is either lazy or incompetent?” Leon hesitantly asked. 

“That or they’re covering something up,” Lex stated as he started towards the door. “I think I should take a private, nonsupervised visit to the police station at some point. Maybe I can dig up some dirt on the sheriff or find some information about our most recent missing people.” Lex opened the door, signaling it was time to go. They had approximately spent an hour or two searching the apartment from top to bottom. At least this trip proved to be helpful, unlike the one to the police station. The group filed into the small, cramped hallway one by one, with Lex closing the door behind him. 

Just as they were about to make their way to the stairs, the sound of a door creaking open sounded throughout the hallway. The group turned around to face the person entering the hallway. Lex instinctively slowly brought his hand to rest over the strap where his gun lay and Coral bent down to act like she was tying her shoes. She reached for the knife that she had concealed in her sock.   
A small, petite lizard with bright, vibrant scales, stepped out into the hallway. She seemed surprised to see the group standing in the hallway. Coral slowly picked herself up from the ground, moving her sock to once again conceal her knife. Lex was less trusting as he only slightly moved his hand away from his gun just so it looked more natural. 

The intruder stared at the group and the group stared back. The hallway was once again filled with silence, although, this time it was laced with tension. Naturally, Leon picked up on this pretty quickly, although he didn’t see the lizard as a threat. 

“Good morning!” Leon said in his chipper tone, catching both the group and the lizard by surprise. Thankfully, his speaking up seemed to alleviate some of the tension in the hallway, even if it was small.

“Oh, um… good morning.” The lizard stammered out. She had a very soft and meek voice and her scales changed to a light blue as she spoke. She fiddled with her hands as she spoke. Lex shared a glance with the rest of the group, gauging from their gazes that they didn’t view the lizard as a threat. It was only then that he moved his hand fully away from his holster. 

The hallway fell back into silence as the lizard shifted from foot to foot, clearly wanting to say something, yet restraining herself. Lex was just about to tell the group that they should head back to the van to get some other work done when the lizard finally spoke up.  
“Hey, umm… Did you just come out of apartment 205?” It was an innocent question, yet one that set Lex on edge. They couldn’t have their mission be jeopardized by a curious neighbor. Unfortunately, before be could speak, Leon answered her question.

“Yes, we were. We’re here to…”

“Help the police in their investigation!” Coral cut Leon off, thankfully before he could say anything that would make them seem suspicious. Despite this, it didn’t look like the lizard was buying the excuse Coral had given. 

“But the police came over last week to investigate the apartment. They said they didn’t find anything, though. I read it in the paper.” 

“We’re just here to make sure they didn’t miss anything in their investigation. You know, it's better to double-check, just to make sure.” 

“Right….” The lizard was hesitant to believe them and that made Leon shift uncomfortably. The hallway seemed to have its temperature raised a few degrees as he found himself rubbing the sweat off the back of his neck. Needless to say, he was nervous about where this would go. If the lizard didn’t trust them, then she could go to the police and verify that they sent a group to re-investigate the apartment. When it was found out that they didn’t, the lizard could easily give them a description of the intruders, rendering the group’s attempts at staying quite useless. Any criminal organizations that may be in the town will go dark and the entire mission would be ruined. Not to mention the police could throw them in jail for tampering with a crime scene, at least, until the GCR came to bail them out. And they would not be happy about that. 

“Anyways, do you know have any information about the people that lived here.” Lex gestured to the door. This seemed to perk the lizard’s interest and Leon could swear he saw a twinkle of hope in her eyes. 

“Oh yes! I was actually good friends with them. Those two have had a rough time since coming here.” Lex raised an eyebrow at that.

“Do you mind telling us about them. It may help with finding out where they went.” Emily said, pushing Leon a bit aside so she could get a better look at the lizard.

“Of course! Anything to help find them.” The lizard cheerily spoke, all traces of tension seeming to leave her. Maybe she had realized that they were here to help. Or maybe she was just happy to be of use. Lex couldn’t quite tell yet and he made a mental note to find out more about this person. 

“They’re names were Selina and Teressa. They came to this town after college, though I don’t know why. This isn’t exactly the kind of town you want to settle down in” The lizard let out a dry chuckle at her own joke before regaining focus, “Anyways, they both worked at El Oso Frio in town. They were such fun girls, especially Teressa. She was always up for stirring up a bit of trouble around town. Selina was more reserved but was a ton of fun when you got to know her. It's a real shame that more people didn’t get to know them before they disappeared.”

“What do you mean?” Emily asked, now intrigued at the new information.

“Well, the town really didn’t seem to like them. That or they just had really bad luck. It took them forever to find a job here and even the places in desperate need of help always turned them down for some reason or another. Not to mention they seemed to have the police department on them 24/7 waiting for the smallest of slip-ups. But I’m sure you already know this as you have their records.”

“Yes, now looking back at it, I do remember seeing a lot of things in their records.” Leon made a mental note to check the criminal records when they got back to the hotel. “Did they say anything about moving out or taking a vacation?” 

“Oh, all the time.” The lizard’s smile was replaced with a look of pity. “But they never could. As much as they may have wanted to, their job didn’t pay enough. Don’t get me wrong, the two loved their job at that ice cream shop, but they were in no position to move away. I mean, they had only been working for a few months and the money that they made mainly went into rent and food. The two were just barely scraping by. Not to mention everything that happened to them in town.”

“Wait wait wait, what do you mean by that?” Leon spoke up from the back. It felt like they were finally getting somewhere with this. In fact, all the information that they had just received pretty much debunked the whole ‘moving away’ theory. But that means that the girls really were missing. And the mention of ‘things happening in town’ made Leon think for the first time that something seriously wrong was happening in town. 

The lizard was about to answer before she stopped herself. “Look, I would love to talk more to you but I actually have to get going to work. But I would love to talk to you about it more. Maybe tomorrow or something. Here,” She scrambled into her purse and dug out a slip of paper and a pen. She then proceeded to write out a number onto it before handing it to Lex. “This is my number, feel free to call it at any time. We can even schedule a meet up if that is more convenient for you guys. I want to help out as much as possible because I just,” She paused, her eyes beginning to water with the tears, “I just want my friends back,” she croaked out, her voice horse from sorrow. 

Lex extended his hand and placed it on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’re going to find them, no matter what.” He reassured her. That seemed to lift her spirits a bit. She let out a sniffle before wiping her face with the sleeve of her shirt. She gave the group a shaky smile and straightened herself up a bit. 

“Well, I hope you do. Please keep me posted on anything that you find.” And she brushed past the group in a rush to get to the stairs. However, she stopped halfway there and turned back around to the group, a sheepish smile on her face. “My names Margret by the way, Margret Lesion.” And then she hurried down the rest of the hallway in a rush to get to work on time.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------  
“So, it seems like something odds going on in this town.” Leon quipped as they exited the apartment complex. The sun was now relentlessly beating down on the group and Emily regretting wearing black today. 

“Yes, or at least, the police department is full of incompetent dicks too busy jacking themselves off to actually do their jobs,” Emily grumbled as she tripped over a piece of concrete that was sticking up from the parking lot. To be honest, she hated everything about this town already, from the looks that they got from pedestrians to the fact that just about everyone here was in their 40s or 60s and had mastered the condescending stare. In fact, Margret was the only good person they had to meet in town so far. 

“It's too early to say that they’re involved in criminal activity, though,” Lex stated, once again being the voice of reason. If it were up to Emily, she would have stormed into the police station and arrested all of them for not doing their job. That sheriff’s laid back demeanor had irritated her more than she would have liked to admit. There was something about him that rubbed her the wrong way. The fact that he was so arrogantly calm while people were going missing in HIS town was enough to make Emily want to break his horns off and bash him with them. 

The gang piled back into the van, Lex thankfully turning on the air conditioning immediately so Emily didn’t melt in her own sweat. Emily glanced at the dashboard clock, the dull numbers stating that it was only 9:30 in the morning. ‘Great’ Emily though, “The days only just started and I’m already worn out.’ She groaned into her hands, running her fingers through her hair afterward. This town had already managed to suck all the fun out of investigating already. Emily wanted nothing more than to go back to the hotel and fall asleep on the rock hard mattress because as uncomfortable as it was, it meant she didn’t have to take on any more dirty looks from passers-by. 

A look around the car showed that she wasn’t the only one that was feeling worn out. Coral had her head pushed up against the headrest of her seat and was actively letting out annoyed groans. Leon was busy fighting off sleep, his head bobbing up and down every once and a while as he fought to wake himself back up. Even Lex was rubbing his eyes, trying to stay awake as he drove down the main street of town. Emily just rested her head against the car window and watched as the town flew by her. It wasn’t even fun to look at the town. There was nothing there and all the buildings looked the same. Hell, it depressed Emily more than kept her entertained. The only noteworthy thing was the large jungle-like forest at the edge of town that served as a western border. At least that had large, dropping trees that perked Emily’s interest.   
A few minutes later, the van pulled back into the parking lot of the motel, much to the group's surprise. As Lex pulled in and stopped the car, pulling the keys from the ignition, Leon decided to speak up.

“Hey Lex, why are we back at the motel? Don’t we have to check out the rest of the town and ask the townsfolk about the girls?”   
Lex let out a sigh and rubbed his face before turning around to face the back seat, mainly Leon. “Yes, but we have a full week to do that. In fact, I think that we should space out our investigating. So that's why we’re back here. I’m giving us the rest of the day off. Besides, I need to look at some files regarding out missing people. Tomorrow we’ll go to where they worked and ask their boss a few questions, but for now, do whatever you want.” And with that, Lex exited the car, making his way to his and Coral’s room, leaving the rest of the group in silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, yes. I know I haven't posted in a while. The chapters have started to become a bit longer to write than expected. I do still want to do regular updates so I'm going to update every 3 minimum. This story is far from over and we have some important story lines and chapters coming up soon.


	14. Pass me another round

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I know I've been gone a while. If you thought I was abandoning this project you would be dead wrong. I've been planning this story for forever and I really want this story to come to fruition. So long story short, my school blocked ao3 this year and while this wouldn't normally be a problem they blocked it entirely so I couldn't use it to update my story. But now I'm back and have a ton of chapters lined up for you guys. I'll be releasing a new chapter every 2 to 3 weeks from now on and as a special I'm sorry present I will be releasing a short oneshot revolving around Emily and her post break up experience. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter. There are some very important and story changing chapters coming up after this so stay tuned. 
> 
> Trigger warnings for homophobia and violence   
> Song: 505 by Arctic Monkeys

The moon was now rising into the sky, a sign to everyone that night was coming. Those who wanted peace and quiet retreated to their houses for the night, huddling under the covers for some much-needed rest. Yet there were those who didn’t want their day to end just yet. Those people went to the bars and clubs, hoping to find one last memory for the day. While nightlife was usually bright and vibrant, filled with music and dancing, that wasn’t to be found in Diochi. Instead, a hole in the wall bar served as the only site of interest for those seeking night time fun.

That was where Leon found himself at, taking small sips of a cheap beer and drumming his paws on the bar counter. While he would have liked to have gotten some kind of specialty drink, apparently there was nothing of the sorts on the menu. The bar reeked of a mixture of vomit and whiskey. Leon had almost walked out of the bar for that smell alone, but since then he had regrettably begun to get used to it.

The rest of the bar wasn’t any better. The bar counter was almost pressed up against the booths at the opposite side of the wall. In fact, the only place that had space in the bar was where the pool table was, and even that was pretty cramped. It was nothing compared to The Wolf and the Moon and Leon actively found himself missing the distinctive wooden smell of that bar. Instead, he was here in this dimly lit bar with a bartender that watched him like a hawk. 

The patrons weren’t any better. Instead of sneaking suspicious glances at him every once and a while, they were just loud and obnoxious. There weren’t many people in the bar. It was only Leon, the bartender, and a group of six men sitting near the door. 

Leon loved people, he did. Hell, he actively tried to aim for nonvital areas even when in the heat of battle. That being said, Leon found himself gritting his teeth as they yelled at the top of their lungs about some person that cut them off while driving. His grip on his beer was tightening to the point where it felt like it would break. His knuckles were turning white as he raised the beer to his snout and took another sip. He coughed as the cold and tangy liquid traveled down his throat.

‘I bet I could find better beer at the supermarket’ Leon thought as he placed his beer back down on the counter. He wiped his face with his arm, his fur tickling his face. The bartender once again shot a glance in his direction. That would make the 10th in the last 5 minutes but hey, who's counting? Leon pretended not to notice the bartender and waited until he tore his hawk-like gaze away to clean something in the sink. He slipped his phone out of his pocket and read the time, 10:37 in the night. The rest of the group was supposed to meet him there at 50 which meant that he would have to endure 13 more minutes of noisy patrons and untrustworthy bartenders. 

Leon let out a sigh and cupped his head in his hands. Despite only waking up from a nap an hour ago, he still felt worn out after the morning. It felt like this town sucked all the energy out of everyone, leaving hollow shells of a being. Well, everyone but the group of patrons next to the door who remained as rowdy as ever. They had stopped bad-mouthing drivers and had moved onto talking trash about their bosses. From what Leon could gather, one of them worked at the one supermarket in town handling meats. Another apparently worked at the gas station. Leon could have guessed that from the slight smell of gasoline that he had caught when walking by them earlier. Still, another worked in construction. Leon had discovered that the town was planning on repaving the main road from the guy that claimed to work in the city council. But the ringleader of the group still hadn’t talked about his job yet.

Not that Leon cared. He was just extremely bored waiting for the rest of his group to arrive so at least he could talk to someone. He would talk to the bartender but the myriad of sideways glances directed towards Leon made him think otherwise. Speaking of which, the bartender was once again watching Leon. Maybe he had nothing better to do so he was just occupying his time by memorizing Leon’s characteristics. Leon didn’t care what it was but he was a second away from telling him to stop. He would have done it sooner but he worried about starting a fight and getting kicked out of the bar. As much as Leon hated it, the bar was one of the only places in town that he was slightly intrigued in. How it had managed to stay open was a mystery and the fact that there were only two groups currently in it certainly showed that it didn’t get enough attention.

Another glance at his phone showed that the time was now at 10:39. Time felt like it moved slower here, especially with nothing to do. A check at his messages showed that the group was getting ready to leave the motel which was at least a small glimmer of hope. Maybe they would arrive early and save Leon from the boredom that surrounded him. He slipped his phone back into his pocket, noticing the bartender had watched him do so. Leon leaned against his hand that was on the counter as he stared at the poorly lit pool table. He was half tempted to go over there and start taking some shots to give him something to do, but without someone to compete against, what was the point. So he decided to go back to listening to the mindless chatter coming from the other group. 

They were currently on the topic of shops in town and which ones their family’s had dragged them to that week. It honestly surprised Leon that any of those men had families, but that goes to show how different people’s tastes in significant others could be. The current store they were talking about seemed to be an ice cream shop, though Leon hadn’t heard what its name was. One of them was talking about how his kids had whined about it until he eventually caved and bought them a sundae each. 

“I can’t believe you caved to your kids like that, you fucking pussy.” One of them laughed as he banged his hand on the table.

“You know I can’t say no to my kids! When they want something, they won’t let it go until they get it.” The one who was telling the story responded. “Maybe when you get married and have kids, you’ll understand.”

“No, Caleb’s right. You could have said no instead of supporting that fag-lover’s business.” The ringleader said. Leon was glad he wasn’t holding anything at the moment because he would have broken it out of rage. As if being obnoxious wasn’t enough, now these guys had to throw homophobia into the ring as well. Leon let out an annoyed sigh, trying to calm himself down. He stood up from his barstool and made his way towards the group. They didn’t seem to notice him at first so he had to awkwardly coughed to get their attention. One by one, they slowly swivel their heads to look at him. Leon could see the venom in their eyes as the last of them turned to look at him. 

“Hey, ummm,” Leon stuttered. He didn’t want to come off as too offended or anything but at the same time, he wanted the group to know that he was serious. “Do you think you could refrain from using slurs like that?”

The ringleader scoffed at him. “What, fag?” 

Leon internally cringed. “Yes, that. I just think because we’re kind of in public if someone comes in and hears that they may feel uncomfortable.” The booth stayed silent for a second before erupting into laughter. Even the bartender let out a bit of a chuckle from behind Leon. Everyone in the bar was laughing except for two people, Leon, and the ringleader. The ringleader checked his surroundings before holding his hand up to get everyone to quiet down. At once, the laughter stopped, plunging the room into an uneasy silence. The ringleader turned back towards Leon and flashed him a smile. Leon could see his slightly longer than normal bat fangs glimmer in the light. 

“Listen, kid, I don’t know if you know this, but we’re the only ones here. Hell, we’re probably going to be the only ones that step foot in this bar for the rest of the night. I really don’t think anyone but you are going to be offended by what we say. So if you don’t want to hear it anymore then scram because we sure as hell aren’t going anywhere.” 

Leon gulped. This situation was quickly escalating and now he was left with a few decisions. He could walk out of the bar and head back to the motel, telling the rest of his group that the bar was closed or something. Or he could stay at the bar and wait for the rest of his group, hoping that if the other group said something like that again no one from his group would start a fight.   
“Look, I would love to go, but my friends are actually coming in a few minutes and I wanted to enjoy a nice night on the town. I don’t think that they would be very comfortable with the language you’re using either. I don’t want to start anything here and I’m sure you aren’t either. Maybe we can find a compromise or something?” 

Leon gave the gang his best, most innocent smile, a final plea for them to hear him. The ringleader, a large and lanky rhino, looked back at the rest of his gang, each one giving him a nod as he made eye contact with him. They were silently agreeing to something and Leon hoped that they were going to be able to avoid a fight. That is, he thought that until the member on the far right near the bar grabbed the beer bottle Leon was drinking from and threw it straight at his head. Leon noticed him before it was too late and barely managed to dodge out of the way, the bottle shattering against the far wall of the bar, liquid courage and glass shards painting the ground. 

“Hey, there's no need to throw things!” Leon yelled while backing up. Eventually, he reached the end of the line as he hit the wall of the pool table. “We can just talk it out like normal, civil adul---” 

He was cut short as a fist flew straight into his cheek, sending Leon reeling to the left. Leon could taste the metal in his mouth as blood started to pool out from a wound. If the thrown glass hadn’t been a sign that the opposing group was not interested in talking, this sure did the trick at convincing him. Leon rubbed his jaw and made sure it wasn’t dislocated. As he was doing this, one of the members of the group, a black sheep with curly horns,  picked up one of the chairs at the bar and held it over his head, prepared to smash it down over Leon’s head. 

Although the punch had caught him off guard, Leon was now well aware that this was going to turn into a fight. So when he heard the sound of a grunt coming from behind him, he was prepared for the attack. He rolled across the wall of the pool table just as the goon swung the chair down on the pool table. The legs of the chair shattered upon impact as bits of wood scattered across the room.   
Leon quickly grabbed a pool ball off the pool table in preparation to counter-attack. He twisted himself to look back at his attackers and noticed that although they were still mostly staying in a packlike formation, the closest of the group was noticeably farther away from the rest of them. This made that man an easy target for Leon as he swung his arm out and smashed the pool ball into his face. 

The aggressor stumbled back towards the group, cupping his face in his hands out of pain. The rest of the group had stopped pushing up towards Leon in a mix of surprise and concern for their comrade. Leon capitalized on their distraction by throwing the pool ball at one of their heads. The ball sailed through the air and connected with its target, an audible *clunk* sound echoing throughout the bar. The attack caught the victim off guard and stunned him temporarily. This gave Leon enough time to leap over the pool table to the wall at the end of the bar, simultaneously giving him more distance from his attackers and allowing him access to the rack of pool cues that hung from the wall. 

Leon grabbed a pool cue off the rack and prepared himself for the group’s next attacks as they snapped out of the trance they had been put in since they saw their friends get injured. Now they continued advancing towards Leon’s position with a murderous look in their eyes. If they had wanted to mildly rough up Leon before, now they wanted to tear his spine out of his ass and hang it over their door frame. Leon decided to use this to his advantage as although they would be fighting much harder now, there was a greater chance that they would rush their attacks out of rage, giving Leon the perfect opportunity to strike back. 

The gang had now surrounded Leon from all ends, pushing him up against the wall and the pool table. He the first attack coming from his left and ducked just in time to avoid another ear ringing hit to the face. He kicked at the leg of his attacked, managing to hit him directly in the knee cap. The attacker’s leg gave out with a sickening crunch as his leg broke. Leon was just able to roll out of the way of the next attack as the man on his right tried to kick him while he was on the floor. He rolled to the other end of the pool table that was unguarded and took off running towards the door. The opposing group noticed him and took off after him so that he couldn’t escape.

But Leon wasn’t heading towards the door like they thought, he just needed to put some distance between him and his attackers. He reached the door in a few seconds and turned around to see the other group hot on his tail. He dodged out of the way as the one leading the pack threw a wild punch at him. The attacker missed and stumbled forward, slamming into the glass door and shattering it into millions of tiny pieces. After a few seconds of him not getting back up, Leon assumed that he was down for the count. That left five men left. Well, four and a half since the one he had punched with a pool ball was currently hanging back and stumbling throughout the bar. 

Leon rolled across the bar counter as another beer bottle was thrown at him, almost barreling into the bartender who was paralyzed with shock at the other end. Ducking behind the counter, Leon got a chance to plan out his next move. The disoriented member was easy to take down and was the least of Leon’s worries. The main worry was the fact that the ringleader had a gun in a holster strapped to his side. Leon had noticed it when he had rolled under the pool table. While the gang was still fighting hand to hand, if the ringleader deemed the situation a lost cause, he could easily shoot Leon or at the very least severely injure him. Leon needed to find a safe way to take the firearm from the ringleader’s holster so that he didn’t have a ranged advantage over him. But he had to do this while avoiding the rest of his lackeys. 

The shattering of glass above the bar counter signaled that it was time to move. Leon gripped the pool cue in his hands a bit tighter as he stood up and wildly swung it over the counter. He managed to hit one of the gang members in the side of his head near his ear. He followed up his attack by smashing the butt of the pool cue into the other’s face. The victim of the blow was sent stumbling backwards, allowing Leon to grab a glass from behind the bar counter and jump over the counter to smash it into the side of his face. The gang member crumpled to the ground from the impact, knocked out cold. 

Leon had no time to celebrate his small victory as he was attacked from his right side by the ringleader. He wasn’t as lucky with this dodge, though, and a fist clumsily slammed into his left arm. Leon let out a small hiss of pain before jumping back to avoid a follow-up punch. In a way, Leon was glad that he had gotten hit by the ringleader. It at least showed that he wasn’t threatened enough to pull his gun on Leon which gave him some more time to figure out how to disarm him. 

Another beer bottle was thrown at him, although it missed him by a mile and crashed into the booth nearest to him. Leon turned around to see the goon he had hit with the pool ball at the very end of the bar, frantically searching for something else to throw. Seeing an easy target, Leon broke out into a run, his pool cue ready to attack. He swung upwards with it first, catching the goons chin and causing him to let out a gurgled cry of pain. Then he brought it back downwards, smashing it into the back of the goon's neck. The goon’s head smashed down onto the bar counter with a thud and he ceased to move. 

Spinning around, Leon was just barely able to stop one of the gang members from crashing a chair into his back. He was just able to use the pool cue to block the attack, the pool cue catching the legs of the chair just before they hit him. Leon used all his strength to push the gang member back and slam the seat of the chair into his chest. The gang member weekly let out a breath as he struggled to find some of the air that had been knocked out of him. Leon took the opportunity to whirl around with the pool cue, building up enough force, and bring the pool cue crashing down onto the goon’s head. Thankfully, this seemed to be enough to knock him out as he laid there motionless on the dirty bar ground. 

With so much excitement, Leon had almost forgotten about the main threat, the ringleader with the gun. His world seemed to slow as he watched as the ringleader started moving his hand towards the gun holster. In a few seconds, Leon would either be dead, severely injured or at the mercy of the gang. All rational thought seemed to exit him as he balanced himself out and started charging towards the ringleader, the butt of his pool cue pointed right at the ringleader’s gut. 

He barreled past the last remaining member of the group and straight into the ringleader, the pool cue successfully knocking the wind out of him. The two crashed into the ground in a blind struggle as they fought for control over each other. Leon grabbed a fistful of the rhino’s shirt and yanked upwards, bringing the rhino’s head up along with it. He then proceeded to slam it repeatedly into the ground, the sound of skull against wood ringing out into the bar. With his target successfully disoriented (and probably concussed) he took the gun out of his holster and unloaded the clip, tossing it across the floor. 

Then two strong hands yanked him off of the rhino and threw him into one of the booths. He let out a hiss of pain as his right hand slammed into shards of broken glass that lay on the booth. With the threat of being shot, Leon had forgotten about the last remaining gang member. He turned his head to see him rapidly approaching him, a broken beer bottle ready to stab. Thinking fast, Leon swung the empty gun he had managed to hold onto at his attacker’s head and managed to hit him. The gang member spun around from the force of the blow which gave Leon enough time to leap up from the booth and use the last remaining portion of his strength to kick the goon in his back. The kick sent him forward and directly into the bar counter. The goon fell backwards, motionless but still breathing.

With everyone either unconscious or on the ground in pain, Leon finally took a moment to breathe. He felt a sharp pain coming from his right hand and looked down to see it covered in glass. It must have gotten hurt when he was thrown against the booth. He gritted his teeth as he started walking towards the door. All hopes at a peaceful night had been dashed and now he needed to spend his night pulling shards of glass out of his hand. He began to walk towards the door, stepping over the group he had successfully dispatched. Stopping at the ringleader he let out a small chuckle. 

“For someone who threatens people for trying to be peaceful, you sure can’t back up your threats. Just a word of advice for the next time you try to intimidate someone, never assume that its an easy fight. You can be surprised what people can do when back up against a wall.” Leon told the ringleader as he groaned on the ground, the pain of his now broken face and ribs too overwhelming to stand up. After a sympathetic glance at the bartender who was clutching his cleaning towel in fear, Leon turned around and walked towards the door. 

That is until he heard a low and painful chuckle from behind him. He turned around to see the ringleader bust out into hysterical laughter. It caught Leon a bit off guard and he would be lying if he said it didn’t make him the smallest bit uncomfortable. Even the bartender was shocked at the sudden outburst of laughter, especially after the man laughing had been beaten to a pulp.   
Eventually, the laughing died down and the ringleader mustered up all his strength to turn and look at Leon. He spat out blood, the crimson liquid staining the floor beside him. He had a wicked smile on his face, one usually reserved for winning an intense fight. 

“I also have a word of advice for you, you son of a bitch.” The man spat out. His face held no warmth or joy to it, instead of becoming a figure of pure fury. “Watch your back. You have no idea what you’re messing with. Bad things seem to happen to people like you in this town. If I were you, I would turn around a run and never stop.” 

Leon took a step towards him and squatted down towards the ringleader. He didn’t care about the threat, he had received for worse ones from people who could probably follow up on their promises. No, the threat wasn’t important except for one thing. One little sentence that piqued Leon’s interest. 

“What do you mean by ‘bad things’?” Leon questioned the man. He was truly intrigued with this now. The threat and reference to ‘people like him,’ whatever that meant, got him wondering about a possible link between these people and the recent disappearances.

“You’ll find out soon enough,” The man gave out a low chuckle before spitting some blood out towards Leon. It missed but it also signified that he was done talking to him. Leon stood back up and started to turn back to the door. He had long since overstayed his welcome here and was ready to leave. Turning around to the door, he stopped when he saw the rest of his group looking at him with various emotions. 

“Are you done beating people up?” Lex asked, a smug grin plastered on his face. Emily was scanning the pile of bodies with astonishment and Coral look a mix between surprised and worried. 

“Yes I’m done,” Leon said, tossing the pool cue he had been holding onto the ground. “Just ran into a little...disagreement with these folks.” Leon gestured to the beaten and bloodied men. 

“Well, as much as I love a good fight, I don’t think we’re going to be able to stay here for drinks.” Lex chuckled. He then turned to face the terrified bartender who was pressed up against the wall next to the door. Lex flashed him a white smile that made the bartender shake in fear. “I’m guessing there are security cameras set up in the bar?” Lex asked him. The bartender furiously nodded, too scared to lie. 

Lex hmmed and hopped over the bar counter to where the bartender was standing. The suddenness to the action caused the bartender to jump a little and knock over a glass drinking mug near him. Lex looked down at the now shattered mug and kicked a few of the shards away from him. 

“Can you take me to the security room?” Lex asked the bartender. The bartender furiously nodded and darted past him into an employee's only room, Lex slowly following behind him. He wouldn’t be hurt, maybe a little traumatized by Lex’s demeanor and the actions that had just occurred but Leon knew he would go to sleep at the end of the night with not a single scratch on him. With the rest of the group here, Leon saw no reason to stick around any longer and with one final glance at the unconscious bodies and their leader, he opened the door and stepped out into the night air, being surrounded by the cool island breeze. 

Coral and Emily watched him go and were a bit concerned about his hand and the state it was in. It didn’t take a genius to notice the small pieces of glass that were embedded in his hand or the red-tinted fur around it. Coral and Emily started towards the door to see if Leon was ok when they heard someone coughing and sputtering. They turned to see one of the men staring at Emily’s shirt. With having woken up late and rushing out of the room to go to the bar, Emily had thrown on a random black cut off shirt that said ‘can’t even think straight’. She hadn’t thought anything about it as she figured no one would care, but the stare the man was giving her proved otherwise. He scoffed and laid his head back down on the cold, dirty, and glass-covered floor. 

“Well what do you know, he really was a fag lover.” He spat and let out a low chuckle. Emily frowned and started walking towards him, bits of glass breaking under her black combat boots. 

“I think I know why Leon started the fight.” She said, her comment directed at Coral whose expression was unreadable. Emily’s lips turned up in a slight smile, she was going to enjoy what she was about to do. She raised her combat boot upwards and swung it down at the man’s head, kicking him with enough force to knock him out. The last thing he saw as he passed out was the black sole of a boot slamming into his face. 


	15. Under the Shadow of the Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leon must deal with the repercussions of his fight at the bar, although it doesn't seem like he will have to face it alone as something won't let him be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings: Blood, small surgery, descriptions of abuse  
> Song: The Moss by Cosmo Sheldrake

Cool night air whipped around Leon as he started walking down the now desolate sidewalk of town. The events of the night had left him winded and filled with energy that he needed to burn. His injured hand was barely hurting due to the adrenaline rush he still was experiencing. He gave himself around 30 minutes to an hour before it started to hurt like hell. Aside from one medium-sized shard of glass sticking out of his palm, the shards of glass were pretty small, which meant that he would need to dig them out of his skin with tweezers or something. He shuddered at the thought of having to endure that much pain for something so small. 

The option of the hospital was out of the question. For one, the nearest hospital was pretty far away, at least 30 miles or so. There was also the fact that a visit to the hospital would eventually reach the GCR who would suspect something was wrong with the mission and take Leon and the rest of his team off the case. Normally Leon wouldn’t care about being taken off a case because it meant that he would have more time to relax and goof off at the house. But for some reason, Leon didn’t want to let this mission go. Something about it felt close to him in some way, a way that left him feeling determined to see it through to the end. Maybe it was because he wanted to expose a slimy officer, maybe it was the itch for action he had been having for the last week. Or maybe it was something entirely different, fate pulling him to an answer. 

Leon was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of footsteps rapidly approaching. He turned around to see Coral running towards him, desperate to catch up to him. He pivoted on his feet and turned to watch her run down the sidewalk, bits of loose pavement kicking up slightly. Coral slowed down when she got close enough to him and walked the rest of the way, her face inquisitive. 

“Hey Leon,” Coral greeted him when she had reached his side. Leon gave a small nod of his head and a little smile but his mind was elsewhere. He was busy stewing over what the ringleader had told him about bad things happening to people in this town. It was clear that there were quite a few disappearances happening, but they all seemed relatively disconnected from each other, no specific theme to the kidnapped victims. At least, that's what he thought up until he heard what that man had told him. Maybe it was time to take another look at the victims. 

“Hey, sorry about messing up the bar and most likely the group’s night.” Leon apologized. Coral gave a little laugh at it, though, leaving Leon a bit confused which only made her laugh harder. After calming herself down a bit with a few deep breaths, she gave Leon a light punch on his shoulder, thankfully not the one that had hit the booth when he had been flung backwards. That arm would probably be bruised in the morning but it’s better than being covered in glass. 

“Don’t worry about the bar, Leon. I’m sure Lex will get in contact with someone at the GCR to make sure no news of this gets out to the town. As for our night, I could honestly care less.” Coral said, giving Leon a sympathetic look all the while. It didn’t help much with calming his nerves and by her slight frown, it was clear that she knew. “Besides, I wasn’t really in the drinking mood anyway.” 

That comment got a little snort out of Leon, although that was the only sign of humor from him as the two started walking down the street together. The breeze lightly tossed around Coral’s golden blonde hair as the two walked to the street crossing. The two stopped once they reached the end of the sidewalk, not crossing the street for fear of leaving the rest of the group behind at the bar. Neither of them said a word, instead deciding to stay quiet and enjoy the night. Not a soul was on the street, making the town feel more desolate than it already was. 

“Hey, you ok?” Coral broke the silence. Leon let out a sigh and looked up into the night sky. If there was one thing this town had going for it it was the stars. With no bright lights or car smoke that usually go with a city, the stars could be seen clearly in the sky. Leon had never been much for stargazing and would fall asleep during navigation class at the GCR where they talked about using the stars as directions. But standing there in the breeze of the night Leon felt a sense of tranquility, a reprieve from the craziness of the case. The scent of a distant orchid tree flowing in the wind calmed Leon’s nerves making all the concerns of failure disappear. Leon wanted more, even if it was only temporary.

“I think we should do a background check on the victims,” Leon said turning towards Coral. “One of the gang members said that bad things happened to ‘people like us’ and I want to find out what he meant by that. I’m sure Lex wouldn’t have too hard of a time getting police records of the victims. I also want a search through their social media, see if they have anything in common. Finally, I want to know all their sexual orientations if possible. By how aggressive the men in the bar were towards LGBTQ+ people I wonder if there could be some correlation between that and their police records. See if they had more run-ins with the law as opposed to one of the people in the bar. Then I want Lex to take a look at their police records before they came to Doichi, see if they got into the same kind of trouble there.”

And with that, Leon continued walking down the street, leaving a stunned Coral behind. To say she was surprised at Leon’s odd and almost Lex-like behavior was an understatement. Coral didn’t think she or anyone had ever seen Leon so un-Leon-like. She eventually snapped out of it as Leon was halfway down the next sidewalk just in time to call to him before he walked out of earshot.

“Hey,” Coral yelled after him. Leon stopped in his tracks and slowly turned to face Coral, who had not moved since he had started walking. Coral hesitated for a second. With how strange and out of it Leon was seeming the wrong question could set him off. With a deep breath, Coral asked her question. “Are you going to be ok?” 

Leon paused for a moment. His mind was swarming with thoughts about the mission but Coral’s question seemed to stop them for a moment. She seemed genuinely concerned about how he was acting and Leon started to feel a little guilty at worrying her. But he couldn’t be around here, at least, not right now. He needed time to think and clear his mind and even though he knew he had a team supporting him, this felt like something that he needed to do by himself. 

“I’ll be fine,” Leon called back to her, flashing her a fake smile. “I’m just going to go for a walk. I know my way back to the motel so I don’t need someone to pick me up. The fight left me a bit winded and I need some time to cool off.” Well, that was only half true. The fight had left him feeling tired but that wasn’t the main reason for his change in attitude. Thankfully, Coral seemed to buy his excuse as she smiled back to him and let out a sigh of relief. 

“Alright then. Just be sure to be quiet when you get back to the room. I’m probably going to fall asleep early after we settle things at the bar. Be safe out there, ok?” 

Leon gave her the best reassuring smile he could give. It felt nice to be worried about in a way. It felt like a family member making sure their sibling got home safe. At least, that’s what Leon thought families would do for each other. He didn’t really have a birth family because he was created by a science mistake. The GCR refused to give out Leo’s family details even though Leon and Lex were created from him. Eventually, the two just decided to let it be and not push for answers. 

“I’ll be ok, see you at the motel.” Leon absentmindedly called back to Coral before turning back to the empty street and walking forward. He had no idea where he would go and just let his feet carry him, hoping that they would bring him to where he needed to be. But even then, Leon wasn’t sure where he needed to be right now. There was only one thing to do, walk.

\-------------------------------------------

Selina had come to hate her name. Every time it was uttered she cringed and a wave of fear shot through her spine. She knew exactly why she felt this way. Her captor had insisted on calling her by her name whenever she was trying to act motherly. The rest of the time she would refer to Selina as ‘pet.’ Selina couldn’t figure out which was worse, the tarnishing of her name or being referred to as a pet. 

It had been three weeks since she had woken up to find herself trapped in her holding cell (or as her captor called it, her bedroom). The first week was the worse, yet the others weren’t much better. And as bad as they had been for her, Teressa had it worse. Teressa often tried to lash out at their captor and would be subject to their cruel ‘discipline.’ Selina shuddered at the thought of what Teressa had to endure. Most of the time it was hits with the cattle prod but sometimes their captor would get creative with their punishment. These included whipping, starvation, and solitary confinement with only the drip of water from a leaky pipe as a sound. 

Selina’s life had quickly become an inescapable hell. She often went to sleep hoping that she would wake up in the bed in her apartment, warm and with no marks from her...transformation. But every time she woke up she would be reminded that that was impossible now and that she was stuck where she was with no hope of escaping. 

Selina tugged at the metal collar around her neck. The cool metal fit around her head loosely but try as she might she could never get it off. This collar was the one thing that was halting her escape. Her captor (or mother as she insisted being called) had forcefully put it on her about a week after she had woken up. The collar was filled with some type of explosive that could be remotely detonated and her captor held the kill switch. She said it was for their safety, so they wouldn’t go into town and expose themselves to the townspeople and get hurt when they try to hunt them down. 

For once, Selina actually agreed with her captor and hated herself for thinking that. She had lived in that town for three years now and she knew for a fact that they wouldn’t be too excited to welcome a living Frankenstein of a bunny into their town. If she went into town and her captor didn’t activate the kill switch, she would die either in jail, strapped to a science table and dissected, or shot by the frightened townsfolk. That was probably the most infuriating thing about being stuck here, being so close to freedom but unable to reach out and grab it. It pained her to no end and she cried herself to sleep with the thought that she would never see her friends or anyone else ever again. 

There was one thing to look forward to int the day, though. Her captor allowed the two girls to go out into the woods for exercise from around 11 - 1 in the morning. She said the reason why they did it so late was so they could avoid people who took a stroll in the woods in the day. The woods provided some kind of respite from the horror of the house that she was stuck in. There was plenty to explore and Selina had found numerous places where she would sit and breath. She would usually try and fill her head with a fantasy of what her life would be had all this not happened. As much as it was nice to pretend for a bit, she would always have to go back to the house and be reminded that as much as she pretended it could never be true.

Today Selina was going to one of her favorite spots in the forest, a small wooden building that had been abandoned and left for nature to take over. The building was oddly calming to her and she often found herself just sitting on the wooden floor of the building and looking through the broken roof at the stars. It was something she used to do at her apartment too, although without the whole broken roof part. It reminded her of her life before, sitting with Teressa near the window of their apartment and making up constellations. She smiled at the memory as she continued to walk through the heavily wooded forest. 

\---------------------------------

Leon had walked until he reached a small barb wire fence at the edge of town. The fence was easy enough to jump over and was just a way to discourage kids from venturing into the forest and getting lost. Although Leon assumed that it didn’t do much for the adventurous types that saw the fence as another obstacle to conquer. 

He had read about this place when he was researching the town of Doichi for the mission. Lex had told him to familiarize himself with the town that they would be staying in for the next week. The forest once used to be home to a small campground and park over a decade ago. The main goal of it was to bring in tourists and campers, both of whom were interested in exploring nature. Due to a lack of attendance and financial issues, the city council decided to shut it down and put the money towards a new grocery store in town. They didn’t have the funds to order a demolition team so they left it how it was and set up a four feet tall barb wire fence up till the city limits where they had no jurisdiction to go any farther. 

It was honestly a shame as camping sounded like the most enjoyable thing in the town. Or at least, that was what Leon thought. He was already sorely disappointed in the bar and probably not be let in there again even if he wanted to, which he didn’t. The only other place of interest for him was the ice cream shop that Marget had told them the missing girls had worked at. The plan was to visit there tomorrow and ask the manager a few questions. Hopefully, the news of the bar fight wouldn’t have spread around time by then. 

Leon let out a sigh. He had really messed up by getting in that fight and now the whole mission was in jeopardy. It was still a mystery to him why Lex was so nonchalant about the whole thing even though he now had the job of covering up Leon’s mess. Leon hated it when people had to cover up a mistake that he had done. It made him feel like a hindrance to others and inadequate. It hadn’t happened too frequently and not as serious as the situation that Leon had caused recently. 

With a shake of his head, Leon refocused on the decision at hand. The forest looked so calming, like a peaceful oasis away from the stress of his job. On the other hand, Leon could get lost in there and have to find his way out, which would mean getting to the motel late, possibly waking up Coral, and losing precious sleep. Leon ran his fingers through his hair and let out a deep breath.   
Real-life was a lot different than the academy where all the situations were clearly explained to him and it was up to Leon to follow orders or not. Now there were no clear answers and decisions had drastic consequences. In the academy, a slip up meant a failed mission that could be retaken after a few days of training. Here you only had one shot. Slip-ups like the one at the bar couldn’t be tolerated.

Leon was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn’t process the fact that he had climbed over the fence until he was weaving through trees and into the forest. It was like his body had ignored the mind and had acted of its own accord. Maybe it was for the better and it knew something that the mind didn’t. Leon let out a little chuckle as he pushed aside a few branches and pushed on through the brush of the forest. He was careful not to use his injured hand so that he wouldn’t hurt it anymore. 

A sharp pain from his hand signified that the adrenaline rush Leon had had from the bar fight was wearing off. Soon the pain from his hand would be unbearable, not to mention he had to dig the glass out of it which would only hurt more. Leon groaned as he clutched his hand and used his right shoulder to push through the forest branches. He was beginning to regret not just going back to the motel and having Coral look at his hand. Leon looked back behind him, trying to see if he could see the fence that he had come from. Tree branches and shrubs made it impossible to see how far he had walked from the entrance. Another sharp pain told Leon that it was time to find a spot to fix up his hand and for the first time of the night mind and body agreed.

\----------------------------------

Selina walked through the now semi-familiar forest. The twisting branches and bushes started to feel recognizable after the two weeks that she had wandered through them. The sound of a far off bird reached her ears as she stepped over the root of a tree. The stars were barely visible through the dense roof of leaves that covered the forest. Occasionally the light of one of the moon would blink through the leaves only to be snuffed out as she walked past it.   
While the forest was calming, fear of the unknown still managed to grip her. A rustle of the leaves or a squawk of a close-by bird made her jump and reminded her that as serene this place was, it was also home to one of the most dangerous and sadistic beings to ever exist, her ‘mother’. Selina shuddered at just referring to that woman as her mother. 

She stopped by an orchid tree and greedily snagged a few of the beautiful white and purple flowers off the tree and ate a few of them while she walked. It was amazing that a relatively tasteless flower managed to taste better than the slop she was force-fed back at the house. Selina had learned which flowers were edible from one of her friends in college and relied on that knowledge to feed herself. She often snuck a few flowers or plants back to Teressa for her to eat. At first, Teressa refused to eat anything that she was given but eventually through a lot of crying and hours sitting up with Teressa when they should have been asleep she had managed to convince her to eat. 

Teressa, the thought of her friend brought tears to her eyes. Although Selina was still captive to her ‘mother’ she rarely faced her wrath. Teressa, on the other hand, felt that wrath every other day. Her back was now dotted with scars from whips and spots of fur had been burned from repeated shocks from the cattle prod. For the first week of their new life, Teressa had blocked Selina out, isolating herself and causing as much trouble as possible which always lead to punishment. Even on days where she did nothing at all, she would get punished. It pained Selina to no end to see her friend suffer as much as she was. 

In the last week, Teressa had toned down her escape attempts and stopped being so combative even though she still endured regular pain and punishment. Selina was worried that her friend was finally being broken by their captor. The thought of that sent chills down Selina’s spine. Teressa was one of the most headstrong people that she knew. When she was backed up against the wall she would fight until her last breath. Only now the flame behind her eyes was dying down. If she didn’t get out of there soon, Teressa would be even more of a shell of her former self than she already was. 

Selina stopped as she walked through a familiar set of trees. She had reached her destination. A wooden hut left to rot in the middle of the forest came into view as Selina brushed her hand over the leaves of a nearby tree. She had found this place on one of her first nights here. The hut offered an almost peaceful atmosphere that drew Selina into it. To see something so broken down yet still standing was a sight that she often found herself thinking about throughout the day. The surrounding area was also very calming with a small stream a bit to the left of the main door where she often drank from. 

This was her destination for today. The plan was to just sit inside it and listen to the stream outside before having to go back to the house. She would drink from the stream before she left and bring a few orchid flowers for Teressa and her to eat before they went to bed for the day. But as she walked through the broken-down doorway her hopes at a semi-normal night were dashed as she looked at the raccoon slumped against the wall. 

\-------------------------

The hut that Leon had stumbled into was not exactly the best of places to operate on your hand. It was rotting and nature was taking its course on the wooden walls. Vines crept across the floor and up the walls as trees extended their branches almost like they were trying to take a piece of the hut for themselves. Pieces of wood from the ceiling and bits of glass from a broken window now covered the floor as well as any furniture that had managed to survive the years of neglect. The computer monitor that had once sat on a small table near the now broken window had fallen over most likely during a storm. Now the computer monitor lay on the floor with its screen broken and its border falling apart. 

Leon slid down on down the wall across from the window and sat on the slightly damp floor. Bit of paper from the upturned filing cabinet in the corner of the room were scattered across the ground. Leon took no interest in them and instead delicately looked at his hand. Small pieces of glass were barely visible through the mixture of dried blood and fur. Leon sighed as he thought about how much this was going to hurt. Then he thought about the building he was in. 

When reading up about the now-defunct camping ground Leon had read about these small stations they had set up for the park rangers and security. These stations were mainly spots for off duty rangers to get some quick rest or get caught up on paperwork, hence the file cabinet. The stations were marked out to the people camping there (or at least the ones who knew how to use a map) in case they needed anything. This turned out to be a terrible idea as teenagers camping there regularly snuck into the stations when no one was there and ransacked it. If there was a ranger there, they would often throw things at the window or try to wake a sleeping ranger up. 

When the camping grounds closed, the stations were abandoned along with the rest of the park. That was over 15 years now and the mix of tropical storms and rot had started to eat away at the stations. But that wasn’t what got Leon excited. These stations often held extra supplies for campers if they needed them. Spare lighters, fuel, coal, and tent stakes were often stored away if anyone needs them. But the most important thing that these stations carried was a fully stocked first aid kit. Each station got one of these in case someone did something stupid and needed to be patched up. If Leon as right, the first aid kit should have been left to rot along with everything else in this hut. 

Gingerly, Leon began to push away the rubble in hopes of finding the long lost first aid kit. Small spiders and ants ran out of their cover as Leon pushed their homes away with his good hand. He brushed leaves and dust away until he found the dull red box in one of the drawers of the file cabinet. The box seemed to be relatively untouched other than the first aid sticker that was beginning to peel off. 

Leon took the first aid kit back to his spot on the wall and opened it with his good hand. The kit was fairly well stocked, better than what Leon was expecting. It had a good amount of wrapping, gauze, some rubbing alcohol, tweezers, band-aids, some ointment for cuts, and scissors. Leon picked up the tweezers with his good hand and examined them. Despite the flurry of storms that usually hit the island the tweezers had managed to stay rust-free. In fact, it looked like everything in the kit had managed to avoid the pounding water throughout the years. 

Using the tweezers was a lot harder than Leon had thought it would be. Even though he had used tweezers plenty of times during first aid class at the GCR he had never used them with his opposite hand. Leon was right-handed and did just about everything with that hand. Needless to say, he was a bit shaky holding the tweezers with his left hand. He straightened himself up and started moving the tweezers towards his injury, the jaws of the tweezers open to pull out any shards of glass.

It took a good few minutes for Leon to get the tweezers to grab one of the shards of glass that was sticking out of his hand. The momentary victory was cut short as Leon remembered he had to pull the shard out. With a sharp breath and a quick ‘shit,’ Leon yanked the shard out with the tweezers. He immediately dropped the tweezers as he clutched his right hand. The pain was just about unbearable and Leon was tempted to scream into the silent night. 

‘One down, around 10 more to go.’ Leon thought as he picked the tweezers up with his left hand and slid them onto his fingers. He took a few deep breaths before he went back to trying to get the jaws of the tweezer on another piece of glass. This time it only took his three minutes to grab a shard of glass but even longer to pull it out. Leon’s mind kept thinking about the pain that the first shard had caused him and it wasn’t even in that deep. It took about five minutes before Leon mustered up enough courage to yank the damned shard out of his hand. Once again, he doubled over in pain and dropped the tweezers in favor of soothing his hand.   
Blood was now pouring out of his left hand again and staining his right hand with crimson liquid. After a few minutes of deep breaths, Leon reached over to the tweezers on the floor only for a hand to reach out and pick them up. 

Leon looked up to stare at the person that had picked up the tweezers. It was hard to make out who it was due to the lack of lighting in the hut. The only light available was the moonlight streaming in from the holes in the roof. From the shadows it looked like the figure was looking at the tweezers, turning it over in their hands to observe every angle. To say Leon was a bit tense was an understatement. A random figure coming out of nowhere is creepy on a good day, one coming out of nowhere in an abandoned forest when you have an injured hand is downright terrifying.

Slowly the figure stopped looking at the tweezers and instead focused on Leon’s injured hand. The blood was still slowing from the open wounds and was now staining his pants but Leon couldn’t care less at that moment. He was more worried about the figure using those tweezers to attack him. Although Leon was sure he could take whoever it was in a fight, the bloodloss and his right hand would leave himself open to sloppy mistakes and possibly more injuries. Leon moved his hand to the open first aid kit and grabbed the small pair of scissors with his left hand. He slid his hand back to its original place still holding the scissors, waiting for an attack. 

Yet the figure didn’t move forward. The silhouette just kept staring at him and his injury, not moving or saying a word. It was like they were caught up in a battle in their mind, trying to figure out their next move. The two just stayed there, staring at each other and not saying a word. The ambient sound of the forest nightlife echoed on the wooden walls that surrounded them. Small flies flew in and out of the holes in the roof and came to swarm and dance around the two, trying to get them to flinch or swat at them. Yet despite this, neither of them moved. 

Leon knew that the longer he stared at the figure in the shadow the more blood he would lose from his wound. He would need to resume taking the glass out soon, despite the person watching him. With him no longer having the tweezers he would have to use the scissors or his right hand to dig the shards out. Leon grimaced at the thought and in turn moved for the first time that he had seen the figure. Digging the shards out was going to be much more difficult and much more painful now but Leon saw no other way. The figure didn’t seem to be threatening him but also didn’t seem like they were going to give the tweezers back. Whoever it was just kept staring at him, the sight of dark brown eyes being all he could see of the person. 

It was getting late now, much later than Leon thought he would be out. The figure still showed no sign of getting ready to attack and no sign of leaving. Leon let out a sigh before moving his back a bit, trying to get in a more comfortable position. The bugs surrounding him back off for a second before moving right back to their position a moment later. If he was ever going to come back here he would be sure to bring bug spray. Leon examined his hand a bit until he found a shard.

Sparring one last look at the figure, Leon moved the scissors in his left hand above the shard. The steel blades of the scissors reflected the moonlight off of them as Leon held them above the shard. The sight of the shining gray sent a shiver down his spine as he thought about what he was about to do. No matter how many deep breathes he took he could not get himself to calm down. He just wanted to get back to the motel and collapse on the bed, curl up under the covers and go to sleep. But there was no way that he would get back to the motel without fainting if he left the wound to bleed. Leon could practically hear Lex’s voice telling him it would only get worse the longer it was left untreated. 

Leon took one last breath and shut his eyes. It was time to finish patching up the wound, no matter how much it was going to hurt. He could feel his right-hand shake as he lowered it down and opened the scissor’s jaw. Leon forced his hand to be still as he struggled to get the jaws of the scissors to catch onto the glass. It took a while before he actually managed to get some kind of a grip on the glass but eventually, he managed to catch the glass in a way that when he pulled the scissors upward the glass wouldn’t slip out. Leon let out a shaky victory laugh as he readjusted his grip on the scissors. Suddenly he was thankful for the GCR’s emergency medical aid class, even if he thought it was boring at the time. 

With a sudden pull, he yanked the glass shard out of his hand. The scissors slipped out of his hand at that moment as he clutched his left hand in pain. Blood seeped out of the new wound creating a small pool next to him. Looking back at it, Leon really should have made a tourniquet before he started all this. His hand felt like it was being stabbed repeatedly, the attacker never giving him a moment to rest. Leon cursed himself for his sloppiness with the procedure. Had he just gone back to the motel he would have been able to get it treated normally instead of having to do it with an old first aid kit in the middle of an abandoned outpost. 

Once again his sloppiness had gotten him in more trouble than he could handle. Leon’s mind flashed back to the bar and the fight that had happened. He thought about how much he had endangered the mission for attacking the locals. And now he was here, in the middle of the woods, losing blood and on the verge of passing out. The only thing keeping him conscious was the fact that him disappearing in the middle of the night would only further complicate the mission. He couldn’t do that, he couldn’t let his team down again. 

Leon took the scissors and cut a strip of cloth from the bottom of his now bloodied shirt. He then proceeded to tie the strip around the top of his right arm, around the shoulder. With a tight tug, he finished the makeshift tourniquets. The blood flowing from his wounds slightly slowed, enough so he could see the remaining shards. There was no way that he would get through this without fainting. But if he did end up passing out it could be very dangerous for him as he would keep losing blood while passed out.   
His mind was swarming with the thoughts of his team waking up to find his bed empty, no sign that he had come back in the night. Panic would ensue and they would set out looking for him, losing precious time to complete the mission. When they did find him he would be in a terrible state, delirious from blood loss if not dead. They would rush him to the hospital while they tried to salvage the mission. He would be left alone to think of the consequences of his actions, how this was all his fault. 

Slowly, the border of his eyes started to close in on him. In a matter of seconds, he would be unconscious and the mission would be all but failed. Yet no matter how strong his will seemed to be, his eyes continued to close on him. Flashes of his team played in his mind as he fought to stay awake. But as his head started to slump to the side it became clear that unconsiousness was inevitable. 

Suddenly he could feel the cold metal against his injured hand. Leon turned to see the figure crouched down beside him, tweezers open and resting on one of the shards of glass sticking out of his fur. He watched out of the slits of his eyes as the tweezers moved to close around the shard, getting a firm grip to pull. A second later the tweezers were pulled upwards along with the shard of glass. Pain surged through Leon’s body as he gripped his left arm, wishing that the pain would end. His consciousness surged back to him as he focused on the pain. 

Soft fur brushed against his right arm. He could see a light-colored paw stroking his arm in an attempt to soothe and reassure him. It was the only part of the figure that he could see right now, too tired to look up. Instead, he focused on the hauntingly soft movements of the paw. It wasn’t the best form of reassurance but he was glad to have any bit of softness in the horrid situation he had caused himself. Up and down, up and down the paw moved and Leon found himself no longer focusing on the pain. 

Filled with newfound strength, Leon finally brought his head up to look at the person responsible for helping. He let his eyes wander up, taking in the clothes they were wearing and the fur color. The person was dressed in seemingly normal clothes, blue denim jean shorts, and a loose-fitting blue shirt, although there was significant wear and tear inflicted on the clothes in the form of holes and dirt. What caught him off guard was the fact that their fur seemed to change rapidly. One part of their body would be covered in brown fur but directly across from it would be black fur or spotted. It was a bit jarring but not enough to sway him from meeting the face of his possible savior. 

Upon seeing the person’s face Leon’s heart jumped. It looked like a female bunny with long drooping ears and a cute black nose and deep brown eyes that seemed to stare into your soul. That was all that was normal about her, though. Patches of different colored fur ran across her face, much like the rest of her body. Small black lines connected the patches, almost they were holding them together. It was like her fur had been stripped off and sowed back on with other people's skin. Her brunette hair looked tangled and matted with bits of leaves in it. 

Yet as shocking as her appearance was, Leon found himself being strangely drawn to the person. He tried to write it off as him being delirious from the blood he had lost but he still found himself staring into her big brown eyes. Her eyes seemed to shine in the moonlight, showing a fire and determination but also sorrow and fear. The matted brunette hair lightly blew in the soft breeze of the night. For the first time this night he couldn’t hear the frogs croak or the birds sing. Time seemed to stand still while the world around them fell silent. The pain from his hand seemed to melt away as they stared at each other, engrossed with each other. 

Leon couldn’t figure it out but there was something about this woman that made it feel safe. Though her appearance was shocking he could see in her eyes that she meant no harm. Her eyes, the most incredible thing about her. They were like an ocean of brown and Leon found himself drowning in them. And yet, he allowed himself to sink further and further into her mysterious gaze. The woman was a mystery, locked away emotions only slightly visible through her gaze. Theories of who she was started to dance around in Leon’s mind, making it harder to focus on the quiet of the moment. For once he just wanted to turn his brain off and melt in his place. 

Despite the pain, blood loss, the threat of the mission, there was nowhere he would rather be. 

What an odd thought, to be so drawn to a random stranger. Yet he felt comfortable here, like the consequences of the world couldn’t hurt him if he just stayed here in her presence. He had never felt such a strong attraction to someone and that scared him. Through attraction, one would become vulnerable, susceptible to injure or heartbreak. At least, that's what he was taught at the GCR. Over there, feelings meant sloppiness. Of course, Leon was never one to share that sentiment but their teachings still stuck with him. 

Of course, this moment couldn’t last. It was late in the night and Leon was still injured. If they stayed like this eventually Leon would pass out. The world was cruel like that, one could only enjoy a moment of happiness before reality managed to drag them back. It seemed the woman also shared the same sentiment as their gaze fell to Leon’s injured hand. The hand had stopped bleeding for the most part but the shards of glass were still lodged in the skin. 

The woman looked back up at Leon, her worry shown in her eyes. She too knew that something had to be done about it. Her eyes meet Leon’s as they shared their concerns with each other. She still held onto the tweezers in her hand. At the moment she was the only one strong enough to finish the procedure. She had already pulled one shard out, but a look into her eyes showed that she was afraid. Afraid to go any farther and risk hurting him some more. Leon could see the uncertainty in her eyes but also the fear of the untreated hand. 

Leon gave a small nod of his head, signaling that it had to be done. This was going to hurt like hell but it had to be done and he trusted the woman he had just met. ‘What a funny thing,’ Leon thought as he mentally prepared himself for the pain that was going to come. He had only known this woman for five or so minutes, more if you included the time when she was in the shadows. And yet he already trusted her to take care of him. He was possibly putting his life in a stranger’s hands and he felt no fear. It had to be something that he had seen in her eyes, something that reassured him that everything was going to be okay.

Her eyes, those dark chocolate brown eyes. If he could find a way to stare at them all day he was sure he would take the chance in a heartbeat. They were so calming, so mysterious, so intriguing that he found himself thinking about them the whole time she was taking the shards out. Not even the pain of glass being ripped from his hand could take him out of his thoughts. Her eyes were the last thing he thought of as he felt himself slip into unconsciousness.


	16. But when I awoke you weren't there

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leon wakes up after his night in the woods and Selina returns home to a less than amused Teressa.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings: Injury and brief mention of physical abuse

Waking up was such an unpleasant thing to do, even more so when you’ve recently been injured. Leon awoke to the hot tropical sun shining directly into his eyes from a hole in the ranger station roof. The concept of a morning person still boggled Leon’s mind, someone who could actually wake up in the morning and be ready for the day seemed like a fantasy. He knew a total of one and a half morning people and both of them happened to be in his team. Lex, being a polar opposite to Leon most of the time, always seemed to wake up early in the morning and still went to sleep late in the night. How he was able to get enough sleep was beyond Leon. Coral was only a morning person half of the time. Sometimes she would be cheery when arriving to the house, other times she looked like a truck had hit her on the way over. She seemed to be looking like that more often the more Leon thought about it. 

If the sun wasn’t enough of an unpleasant wake-up call then his hand was sure to finish the job. It started out as a dull pain as his body woke up then turned into sharp painful jabs in his fingers and a stab to his palm. He let out a low his as he rolled onto his side to get out of the sun. The rangers station looked entirely different in the sunlight. It was plain to see just how abandoned and overgrown it had become in the past few years. Vines crawled in through the door and crept up the walls. Graffiti lined the wooden walls and various holes dotted the floor. The whole place seemed entirely different from the one he had been in last night. 

Another sharp jab from his hand brought him back to reality. Leon groaned as he sat up, making sure to avoid putting as much pressure on his hand as possible. It took a while before he was able to prop himself up on his feet and even longer to actually take a step. The world almost seemed to spin for a second as Leon struggled to stand his ground. Finally, the world calmed down and left him with a dull headache as he made his way to the door. 

The sun was high in the sky, barely visible through the leaves of the forest. It had to be around mid-day or so Leon thought. Regardless of what time it was, it was clear that he was extremely late to meet the rest of his team. They were supposed to go to the place where the missing girls had worked early in the morning when they just opened. It now seemed like that plan had been dashed.

“Shit,” Leon mumbled under his breath. He knew his team wouldn’t do something as important as this without him. They were all probably back at the motel waiting for him. Or they could be out looking for him. Leon felt his heart shrink just thinking about them waking up in the morning to find he hadn’t come back to the motel. They must all be worried sick about him.

The branches swayed in the wind as Leon began walking through the woods. Birds skipped from branch to branch as Leon walked past them, letting out chirps almost like they were mocking him. The sun was beating down on him making the already humid day even harder to take. Thankfully the trees tried to cover him from the sun’s harsh beams. He passed by several trees, bushes, and flowers, all of which started to look the same as he came to rest under the shade of a large plumeria tree. 

Leon wiped the sweat off of his forehead and took a minute to catch his breath. It didn’t take long to find the house last night so it couldn’t have been too far away from the road. So why was he having trouble finding the road now? He must have gotten turned around a while ago and was walking in the wrong direction. But the problem was there was no way to find his way back to the road. It had been too dark in the night to see any notable landmarks that he could use to find his way back and the hiking trails had long since been overtaken by nature. The only way back to the main road would have to be blind luck.

Cursing himself for not leaving a trail or marking down landmarks, Leon stood back up and leaned against the tree. His hand was still hurting like hell but he had gotten a bit used to the pain in the last hour or so. He would have to have someone look at it when he got back to civilization but for now, he decided it was better to worry about one issue at a time. Leon grimaced thinking about all the mistakes he had made in just the two days. Shoving the thought out of his head he began walking forward again, determined to find some way back out of the woods. 

\------------------------------------------

It ended up taking another hour and a cramp in his side for Leon to find the main road. He didn’t recognize where he exited but at least he could follow the road back into town or back to the motel. By now it was a few hours after midday and the lack of any kind of meal was starting to take its toll on Leon. Aside from being worn out from the walk and having to push through various trees and shrubberies, he was now feeling a pain in his stomach. Every once and a while his stomach would growl at him in an attempt to get some food in it. Of course, Leon had nothing to eat except for a few orchid flowers that he had found while walking although the flowers weren’t exactly filling. 

Without the shelter of the trees walking down the long main road became much more agonizing than walking in the woods. The sun showed no mercy as Leon’s fur soaked in the heat. Without any fur protection or sunscreen, he was essentially baking in the tropical heat. And yet he kept pushing forward down the road until he saw the motel sign peaking out in the distance. He had no energy to break out into a run so he just had to continue dragging his feet towards the motel. 

The parking lot looked as desolate as every as Leon approached the motel. The gang’s van still sat parked next to their room so it didn’t seem like they went anywhere yet. It didn’t take too long after that for Leon to reach the room to his and Coral’s room. Thankfully he had remembered to bring his keycard. It was a miracle that it hadn’t fallen out at some point during the night. Leon let out a pained chuckle at the thought of his small piece of good luck before sliding the card into the slot in the door handle and pulling it out. The light turned green and a small *click* could be heard from the door. He took a deep breath and walked into the motel room. 

The first thing he noticed was that everyone was in the room, each with varied expressions of worry. Lex still remained stoic although it could be seen faltering once or twice. Coral looked concerned as she eyed a document in her bed and Emily was flat out worried, her hands twitching nervously. It was safe to say they all stopped what they were doing and looked at Leon when he opened the door. Their worry melted away for the most part as they remained quiet, waiting for Leon to enter the room. 

As soon as he took a step in the room Emily rushed at him and tackled him into a hug. He hissed as one of her arms hit his injured and bandaged hand which caused Emily to leap back, the worry returning to her face. Coral was a lot more composed in her reaction and stood up from the bed and walked over to Leon. She took his left hand and examined the wrapping the woman in the woods had put on it. Coral’s lips tipped slightly downwards in a frown as she started to unwrap the covering, making sure not to hurt Leon in the process. 

Leon’s arm was relatively well wrapped, better than Leon thought a stranger would be able to do. It was well padded and had lasted him his whole journey back to the motel even when he had to push through thick branches. The wrapping just sustained a few scratches here and there but other than that it had held up extremely well. 

However, that was the good news. Coral had reached the end of the wrapping and was unwrapping the last layer. Once it was off Leon’s hand was exposed to the rest of the group. It looked a lot more grizzly in the day and Leon was missing not being able to see the extent of the injury. His fur on his hand and down most of his arm was capped in now dried blood. The places where the shards had once stabbed into his hand were now almost black from the dried blood surrounding it and was swollen all over. The wounds still needed to be cleaned and having healing ointment applied to them. They would continue to hurt for the rest of the trip but it was better than having them get infected. 

Coral dragged him away towards the sink to begin washing off the blood. She didn’t have the same gentleness as the girl in the woods and was much more harsh with her scrubs. The sink turned a sickly red as the blood was scrubbed off and washed away. By the time they were done water had slashed across the sink counter and Leon’s paws were sopping wet. Before he could dry his hands Coral threw a towel at him as well as his clothes bag which he just managed to back away from before it crashed into his stomach. 

“Take a long shower and then come see me so we can get your wound dressed. Then you can tell us all about your nighttime adventures.” Coral told him before turning back around and going back to the document she was looking at before Leon had entered the room. 

Leon slipped into the bathroom and closed the door slowly as to not interrupt her. Once the door was closed, he slid down the wall and sat on the floor of the cramped bathroom. He let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding as he leaned his head back onto the wall. The team didn’t seem too upset with his recent disappearance, although that could just be because they were happy to see him back. Coral did say that they would talk to him about the incident when he finished his shower so it seemed like there was still time for them to yell at him. 

A dull pain in his left hand shot through him as he bumped it into the side of the toilet by accident. Such a relatively small injury had caused so much trouble because of pride. The fact that all of this could have been avoided had he just gone back to the motel in the first place left a pit in Leon’s stomach, a greater ache than his hunger for some food. To know that you let your team down and worried them to death all because you thought you could do the job better than them was one of the worst feelings Leon had encountered, if not the worst. 

Leon let out an exasperated sigh as he began to tug off his leaf-covered shirt. He tossed it haphazardly at the door a few feet away from him and the shirt bounced off of it and drifted down towards the floor. Leon found himself thinking back to the night before. The fight, the injury, the fence he had crossed over, the woods, the rangers station, the girl in the shadows, the eyes that seemed to stare into his soul and had burned themselves into Leon’s memory. And Leon didn’t mind that. It was like he had taken a piece of her with him, something small to reminisce about.

As Leon stood back up and reached to turn the shower knob he thought back to his encounter in the ranger station. He had ended up there due to his own pride but what happened afterward was...odd to say the least. The woman he had met and her hauntingly beautiful appearance busied his mind as he waited for the shower water to warm. Had he not gone to the woods he would never have had that moment, that powerful meeting and she would have never helped him. In fact, Leon would never have known that someone lived in the woods and would have probably never come across her.

He finished undressing and stepped into the shower, the steaming hot water running down his fur and picking up any bits of dirt left on him. Water trickled down his back, calming and relaxing him. Leon let out a relieved sigh as he let his muscles relax for the first time in days. As he stood there in the shower, letting the water hit his body, Leon thought about if meeting the woman in the woods was really worth all the trouble that he had put himself in. The image of her dark brown eyes flashed in his mind, remind him of her mysterious yet soft nature and Leon realized that he wouldn’t give that moment up for anything in the world.

\-------------------------------------

Selina had just made it back before her two hours were up last night. She would be lying if she said she wasn’t worried that her ‘mother’ would press the bomb trigger for being a few minutes late. Thankfully that hadn’t happened and she had arrived back at the house five or so minutes late. Of course, this was still late enough to warrant a punishment. So last night before she went to bed she had to endure a few jabs with the cattle prod. After that, she had fainted on her mat of blankets from exhaustion and pain. 

The pain had mostly dissipated when she woke up and she was able to stand up and walk around her and Teressa’s cell. The cell was fairly spacious, enough to support herself and a giant bat. That being said, there was barely anything in the cell. No windows, no desks, nothing but a mat of blankets for them to sleep on. It was hard for them to keep themselves occupied when they were locked in the cell, which was most of the day. The only time they got to leave was for the night time forest trips and when ‘mother’ was in a good mood. 

Perhaps the day would have been much easier to get through if Teressa didn’t isolate herself. Ever since the two had woken up to their new life Teressa had barely interacted with her. She spent most of her time hanging from the ceiling with her wings covering her body or sleeping off the mat. Selina had tried multiple times to talk with her and made idle chat but each time she would get close to her, Teressa would scamper back to the corner or the ceiling and Selina would have to listen to the sound of her whimpered crying until she inevitably fell asleep.

As much as Selina knew she was hurting it seemed that Teressa really took it hard. She had known Teressa since college and she knew how the woman tended to deal with pain. Teressa would always isolate herself and hide from the world, too afraid that when she went back it would hurt her again. Usually, Selina would be there to help coax her out of her room and help her through her problems but this time it seemed like she was shutting her out. There was no way to help her unless she was let back in. 

Selina walked over to Teressa’s side of the room to see her once again hanging from the ceiling with her wings covering herself. Teressa used to be about a half a head taller than Selin, now she towered over her probably around seven to eight feet in height. This made walking out of doors in the house especially difficult for her as she would have to bend down and twist herself so she fit which often led to her accidentally knocking something down and getting punished for her clumsiness. Sometimes Teressa didn’t even go out for the night just for fear of breaking something. Teressa shifted as Selina approached her. It always seemed like she knew when Selina was getting close to her and would usually use that information to close herself off. But this time she uncurled her wings from around her and stared at Selina. 

Teressa’s once well-combed fur had become matted and dirty with bits of sticks and leaves. Her clothes had become ripped in almost every part given her new size. The blacktop that she once wore almost every day had been discarded on the floor, ripped and torn beyond repair. Her black leather pants and sports bra were barely holding on by a thread that would break any day now. Two white fangs poked out from her upper jaw. Her once bright red eyes had dulled from sadness.

It pained Selina to no end to see her once proud friend torn down and disrespected. As the days wore on she could see the light in her eyes slowly dim until they were nothing but a bleak reminder of their situation. The once rebellious smile that Teressa once wore with pride had been replaced by a downcast frown. There was nothing they could do to escape, nowhere to go if they did. All the initial hope to be rescued had been killed in the first week, leaving Selina hollow and Teressa devastated. 

Slowly and methodically, Teressa started to climb down from her perch. The pipe she was hanging onto shook as her feet let go of it and transferred her legs to the ground. The dust on the ground swirled into clouds around her feet as she planted them on the cold concrete. Selina once again felt like a mouse as Teressa straightened herself out, shaking her wings and rolling her neck. Compared to her she was a dwarf, one that she could easily bite the head off of. 

The mear idea of that sent shivers down Selina’s spine, ones that she hated herself for. This was her friend from college! The one who stuck by her at the lowest parts and celebrated at the high ones. The one who went along with her when she decided to move into this godforsaken town in the middle of nowhere. The one that had gotten them both of them jobs at the ice cream shop. She was the one who always stood up for them when Selina was too scared to. And yes, she was a little rough around the edges and prone to fights and dipping her foot into dangerous water but there was no one that she would rather have by her side. 

But now that… this had happened Selina felt the bond between them slowly serving as Teressa closed herself off and hid in the corner of the room, refusing to talk to her. Selina had made multiple attempts to comfort her but they all ended the same way, with Teressa hissing and retreating to hang from the pipe as she covered herself with her wings. Selina would walk back to the mat of clothes and lay down, listening to the quiet sobbing coming from the other corner. 

That was why Teressa’s reaction to her approaching caught her off guard. The fact that she was directly facing Selina and staring down at her made Selina’s confidence waver a bit. This was the first time in three weeks that Teressa seemed ready to talk and Selina was determined to not screw it up. 

“Hey,” Selina managed to squeak out. She cleared her throat and repeated it again, this time making sure not to sound so weak.

“Hey,” This time she said it like she would when she was checking up on Teressa after a bad day. At first, Teressa didn’t react and the room was filled with a suffocating silence. But she hadn’t recoiled and run back to the corner. Selina counted that as a minor win.

“Hey,” Teressa finally replied. Her sudden response caught Selina off guard and made her lean back a bit in shock. Her voice was a lot gruffer then she remembered, probably caused by the transformation. Not that Selina was complaining, this was the first words she had heard from her roommate in three weeks. She could care less about her voice, it was just good to hear it again, no matter in what form. The sound of her voice was almost enough to bring her to tears, happy ones for the first time since she was kidnapped, but she composed herself before she cried.

She took a few steps towards Teressa, giving a small smile when she didn’t recoil. Soon she was a foot away from her, the closest she had been in a long time. Being so close to her felt so different but so familiar. The friendly aura that she once had was now buried under layers of sadness and anger. At that moment she vowed that no matter what she would dig that aura back out. 

Eventually, Teressa bent down and lowered herself to the floor, sitting down on the cold concrete. Selina followed her lead, only stopping to move the torn shirt that was beneath her. Dust from the floor flew into the air as she lowered herself to the floor, leaning against the wall. Bits of rock poked at her on the floor but she had gotten used to it in the last three weeks. 

The two sat there for a bit, not knowing what to say. Honestly, what was there to say? There was nothing to talk about that wouldn’t hurt and nothing to do that wouldn’t result in punishment. The only thing they could do was sit there in silence. Teressa would occasionally stretch her arms, showing off the impressive, if not a bit scary, wingspan. Selina took to tossing the small pebbles around where she sat at the other wall. At the very least she was semi-interacting with Teressa. It was a far cry from the nights they spent on the couch in their apartment watching bad movies and throwing popcorn at the screen but it was something. 

Selina didn’t know how long they had been sitting there before Teressa spoke up.

“Did you meet someone last night?”

Selina was caught off guard by the question. She had been thinking about the mystery man in the woods for a while, thinking about what he was doing there, why he was injured, and why he didn’t flee. The entire interaction with him last night still perplexed her. After he had slipped into unconsciousness Selina finished taking out the glass from his hand. It took a while for her to clean the wounds as best she could with the limited supplies and to wrap his hand up in gauze.

Her hands were stained with blood by the time she had finished and the position of the moon told her that it was time to head back to the house. She stopped by a nearby stream to wash the blood off of her hands but didn’t have time to take a full bath so her clothes remained stained. Upon being questioned about it when arriving at the house she lied and said that it was some berries from a bush she had found. Her ‘mother’ wasn’t too happy to see her eating food other than the slop she fed them but decided to let her go to bed without any punishment. Thinking back to that night before she fell asleep she had noticed Teressa stealing a few glances her way but wrote it off as a normal behavior. Now it was obvious that Teressa had known something was up the minute she walked back into the house. 

“What?” Selina tried to play dumb but felt her act crumble when Teressa turned her head to look at her. There was fury in those crimson eyes, a fury that Selina had never seen before. 

“Don’t lie to me!” Teressa half-roared. Selina wanted to run to hide in a tree and wait for Teressa to calm down. But try as she might to stand up and walk away, she felt herself shrinking under Teressa’s glare. 

“I know you met someone in the woods last night,” Teressa said as she stood up, her right-wing almost hitting Selina in the head. She started to violently pace, dust and dirt being kicked up every time she stomped. “I can smell blood on you, blood that I know for a fact isn’t yours. So you better start explaining what happened or I’m going to fucking lose it.”

Selina let out a sigh. She should have known that her sense of smell had improved along with the rest of her abilities. It seemed to be something that had happened to both of them, although in different areas. Selina had gotten exponentially faster and could jump higher and Teressa had gotten a lot stronger and could always seem to know when someone was coming, something Selina attributed to her hearing. They had both been good at these things when they lived a normal life but now it seemed like their skills had been increased to highs neither had seen before. 

“I went to one of my usual spots last night but I found someone was already there,” As Selina started to recount her story Teressa stopped pacing but her glare remained. “Whoever they were, they had an injured hand that was bleeding pretty back and they were having a hard time getting the glass shards that were stuck in his hand out. He didn’t notice me at first and I stuck to the shadows, making sure he didn’t see me. 

“When he did notice he was being watched he slowed down and kept an eye on me. I think he thought that I was going to attack him at some point. It took him a while to continue doing what he was doing and, oh god it was so painful to watch. The glass was really far in there and he was bleeding pretty badly and I couldn’t stand by on the sidelines anymore. So I stepped out and helped him take the rest of the shards out. He didn’t seem terrified when he saw my face though”

She stopped as she thought about that moment. Why he hadn’t run after seeing her face was still a mystery to her. But what was more confusing was how they just sat there for a moment, not doing anything. There was something about him, something that made her feel warm and accepted. It felt like he could see past her appearance, something that not even she knew how to do. 

“When he didn’t flinch away I helped him patch up his hand, although he fainted from blood loss before I could finish. So I kept taking the glass out of his hand and when I was done with that I bandaged it up and left him where I found him.”

Teressa stayed silent for a while, taking in all that she had been told. Selina felt like she understood why she did it, why she couldn’t stand by and watch someone get hurt. Teressa had always been the one to go out of her way to help other people out if anyone understood why she did it it would be her. 

“You god damn fool,” Teressa whispered, just barely loud enough for Selina to hear. Teressa shook her head and let out a pained chuckle that shook Selina to her core. “Do you know what you may have just done. That man knows that you exist and you live in the forest. What do you think he’s going to do when he gets back to town? You know how the people back there would react. As soon as there are reports of a monster in the woods they’re going to storm this place, kill us, and sell our bodies off to some lab to be tested.”

“But this man isn’t from the town!” Selina argued, standing up herself to better face her friend. “In the year that we’ve been living here, I’ve never seen him before.”

“It doesn’t matter. He’ll tell stories of what he saw in the woods. Then it's only a matter of time before someone comes up to investigate.”

“And is that such a bad thing?!” Selina yelled. This was not the way she expected Teressa to react to the news of a possible savior. “If someone comes up to look and finds the house and us then there's a chance we can be saved. We can get out of these collars, get out of this forest, and get back to our lives.”

“This is our lives now!” Teressa roared. “There is no way that we can go back to our normal lives. Everywhere we go people will look and talk about us. We’ll be haunted by the rumors and reporters trying to get our stories. Scientists will try and fix us by poking and prodding with needles but they’re not going to get anywhere. No job will take us and we’ll be left on the streets to starve. Face it Selina, who we were before is dead. No one will look at us more than the beings that go bump in the night. The sooner you accept that the less you’ll get hurt”

The room fell silent again as Teressa brushed past Selina, bumping into her shoulder as she went. Selina was barely keeping it together. She knew what Teressa said was true but it was too hard to accept it. It was too painful to be pulled into their current reality and Selina wanted to try and hope for help for just a bit longer. But deep down she knew that she couldn’t keep lying to herself, this was their life now and nothing could get them out of it. 

“Teressa, I…” Selina started to say before she was cut off.

“No, not Teressa anymore, Nightshade.” She said as she flew back up to the pipe and hung upside down, curling her wings around her body. 

Selina sunk back to the mat of blankets and laid down, letting the prickly wool scratch her face. Her conversation with Teressa, no with nightshade, had left her feeling more distant to her than ever. The friend she once knew had seemed to have died and left a husk using her body in her place. Gone was the strong, independent, and loyal roommate she knew from college. Now she faced someone that she no longer knew. 

As she laid there listening to the soft gurgle of the pipes above she felt the first of many tears begin to trickle down her cheek. Maybe Nightshade was right, there was truly no hope to be found in this place, no hope at all.


End file.
